Managing in the Field: Samantha Lawton

Managing a project in the field has been a new experience for me. Throughout the year my as co-director and I have organized meetings and communicated with community partners. With our indispensable team we were able to decide on the project direction, choose workshop topics and work tirelessly to bring it all together when we came down to Sabana Grande. But things change when you arrive. Local colleagues are busy, team members get sick, and it rains all afternoon. I - perhaps described as more on the “like to be in control” side - have learned innumerable life lessons in my time here, most of which can be summed up by saying “be adaptable”.

One major change since we arrived in Sabana Grande was the amount of chicken coops we planned on building during our time there. Because of community schedules, weather, and a community desire to involve more people in the project, the UC Davis team was not able to construct complete chicken coops for everyone involved in our project. This has made me appreciate our community partners even more (if that was possible). We worked together with our colleagues to brainstorm solutions. They suggested we have people vote on what materials for coops were hardest for them to obtain and just supply these materials instead of the materials for a full chicken coop like we had planned before more people were added to the project. The community decided on tin roofing and nails. In our time there we could work with our local colleagues to put roofs on the most difficult coops and then our partners could finish the coops when we returned to school.

Measuring the coops in order to add a roof

I am so thankful to have been part of a resilient, creative and caring team from Davis and Sabana Grande. One of the most important things I can do as a manager in the field is set up opportunities for discussion and collaboration. The rest seems to follow with a little hard work and flexibility.