IESC Announces Frank Pace Award Winner, Amanda Rose Newton
Volunteers have been a critical part of IESC’s mission since 1964. The Frank Pace Award, named after one of IESC’s founders, is given each year to a volunteer expert, or team of experts, who performed the most outstanding assignment in the previous year. This year’s recipient is Amanda Rose Newton, who volunteered with IESC in Kenya making a lasting impact on the communities IESC serves.
During her volunteer assignment, Amanda Rose Newton worked alongside CAP Youth Empowerment Institute (CAP YEI) to develop a comprehensive curriculum on regenerative agriculture, covering topics such as soil health, water management, and sustainable farming practices. The curriculum was informed by farm visits, discussions with local farmers, and engagement with key stakeholders during a local farming board meeting. This direct input allowed Ms. Newton to refine the curriculum to ensure it addressed the real challenges and needs of the farming community, ultimately fostering stronger acceptance and long-term implementation. She trained 12 CAP YEI staff members in the curriculum, ensuring that educators were fully equipped with the knowledge and skills needed to deliver high-quality instruction. This capacity strengthening was critical to empowering future cohorts of youth farmers and agricultural professionals and supported CAP YEI’s broader mission to expand employment opportunities through its farmer field school model.
In 2025, she returned to Kenya for a second volunteer project with CAP YEI to develop a regenerative agriculture training manual that would strengthen the curriculum she created the previous year. She drafted major sections of the manual and trained an initial cohort of 63 farmer mentors. Upon returning home, Ms. Newton continued supporting CAP YEI on her own time. Working remotely, she collaborated with staff to finalize the Regenerative Agriculture Training Manual and create a structured Farmer Mentor Training Program aligned with CAP YEI’s curriculum. She also adapted the manual to include local case studies and practical examples relevant to Kenyan farmers and supported staff training needs at the organization’s demonstration farm, further strengthening CAP YEI’s internal capacity and demonstrating exceptional commitment to the organization and the young people it serves.
Amanda Rose Newton’s passion, generosity, and extraordinary service have expanded CAP YEI’s impact. Through her curriculum development, staff training, ongoing remote support, and commitment to empowering youth farmers, she has made a lasting contribution to regenerative agriculture education and youth empowerment in Kenya.
