On July 28, 2026, friends, partners, alumni, researchers, community members, and leaders gathered in San Gerardo de Dota to celebrate a milestone: the 30th anniversary of the Quetzal Education & Research Center’s first building.

It was a celebration of thirty years of education, research, conservation, and service. But more than anything, it was a celebration of relationships.

That story reaches back further than the building itself.

Southern Nazarene University’s relationship with the Savegre Valley began in 1987. Over the years that followed, a friendship between Dr. Leo and Zana Finkenbinder and the Chacón family helped create the foundation for what would eventually become QERC. In 1996, the first QERC building was established in San Gerardo de Dota.

What began through friendship and trust grew into something much larger.

Honoring the Past

The anniversary celebration was organized around three themes: Honoring the Past, Celebrating the Present, and Envisioning the Future.

The first belonged to the people who made QERC possible.

Zana Finkenbinder shared memories of QERC’s beginnings, followed by reflections from the Chacón family. Together, their stories underscored a defining part of QERC’s history: long before there were facilities, research programs, or generations of students arriving in the valley, there were relationships.

Those relationships crossed cultures and institutions. They were built through generosity, shared purpose, and a deep connection to this place.

During the celebration, Southern Nazarene University President Dr. Keith Newman presented commemorative plaques honoring Dr. Leo and Zana Finkenbinder and the Chacón family, recognizing the legacy their friendship helped create.

The occasion also honored the many directors, coordinators, staff members, faculty, students, volunteers, and community partners who have contributed to QERC over the past three decades.

Celebrating the Present

Today, QERC is more than a field station.

It is a place where the cloud forest becomes a living laboratory.

Students learn science by entering the ecosystems they are studying. Researchers pursue questions grounded in the biodiversity of the region. Local knowledge and community priorities inform how QERC understands its responsibilities within the Savegre Valley.

During the anniversary program, Mark Winslow reflected on QERC’s growth, while Dr. Luis Sandoval spoke about the scientific work taking place at the center today.

Their contributions highlighted the connection at the heart of QERC’s mission: scientific discovery and environmental stewardship belong together.

For students, that means learning goes beyond acquiring field techniques or completing a course. Studying at QERC means learning to observe carefully, ask better questions, work across cultures, and understand that responsible science is connected to the people and places it serves.

For researchers and collaborators, QERC offers a field setting where locally relevant questions can be explored through partnership and rigorous scientific work.

And for the community surrounding QERC, the center’s continued presence carries a responsibility to remain respectful, collaborative, and rooted in the valley that has made its work possible.

Envisioning the Future

A 30th anniversary naturally invites reflection. It also raises a more important question: what comes next?

Dr. Newman shared Southern Nazarene University’s vision for QERC’s future, renewing a commitment to education, research, conservation, and the people of the Savegre Valley.

The celebration then moved outdoors for two symbolic acts.

First, the QERC community planted a commemorative tree.

Its meaning was simple: deep roots and enduring hope.

Like the relationships from which QERC grew, the tree will take root in this place. Like the students and researchers who continue to arrive in San Gerardo de Dota, it will grow and change. And like the surrounding forests, it serves as a reminder that care for creation carries a responsibility to generations still to come.

A time capsule was also placed beneath the ground, containing reminders of QERC as it exists today: its work, its gratitude, its hopes, and its vision for the future.

Together, the tree and time capsule connected QERC’s history with a future still being written.

A Legacy Built Together

For thirty years, QERC has brought together education, scientific research, conservation, faith, and community in one of Costa Rica’s remarkable cloud-forest ecosystems.

Students have discovered new possibilities for their lives and work. Researchers have expanded scientific knowledge. Partnerships have formed across institutions, disciplines, cultures, and generations.

Yet the foundation has remained remarkably consistent.

QERC exists because people chose to build relationships.

The friendship between the Finkenbinders and the Chacón family helped make the first chapter possible. Every generation since has inherited the responsibility to strengthen what they began: to pursue serious science, care responsibly for creation, serve students well, and remain rooted in partnership with the community of San Gerardo de Dota.

As QERC enters its next thirty years, that may be its most important inheritance.

Deep roots. Shared purpose. And a commitment to keep learning, serving, and caring for this remarkable place together.