Some students drink coffee to motivate themselves to learn.
At Lycoming, coffee is learning.
The Warrior Coffee Program delivers real-world opportunities for students to apply what they've learned about socially responsible, sustainable development to help a community in need. Their collaborations with the people of the El Naranjito region have led to enhanced farming practices, improved coffee quality, and a product that can now be sold on the higher-paying specialty coffee market. Student-designed projects like the creation of a microlending fund to facilitate access to better equipment for coffee processing, along with hard work by the coffee association have made these improvements possible. Prior to the Warrior Coffee Project, producers in the region received as little as $0.08 per pound for their coffee. Warrior Coffee purchased by Lycoming College in 2026 commanded $4.66 per pound.
Since its inception, the program has evolved to include multiple academic departments on campus, providing students from all majors with the opportunity to learn the science of growing coffee while designing and implementing community and economic development projects relevant to their major. Lycoming chemistry students help assess the community’s access to clean water and to analyze the chemical composition of green coffee; students pursuing education certification visit schools in the Dominican Republic to collaborate with instructors on effective teaching methods; and political science students work with a Lycoming-supported local entrepreneur to provide access to affordable solar technology, which brings power to the remote coffee growers' homes. Other academic departments have also called upon their students to join the Warrior Coffee project, and young scholars focusing on international studies, Spanish, history, creative writing, psychology, anthropology, sociology, and more have taken part in these interdisciplinary experiences.
The work emphasizes true service and experiential learning and sets up students for careers of social impact and lives of meaning.
Fighting for what's right. One cup at a time.
