César Guillermo Fetzer Paz

César Guillermo Fetzer Paz is a transformational Guatemalan educator whose pioneering work in agricultural, technological, and psychosocial education has reshaped learning for thousands of students, teachers, and rural families. Raised in a family of teachers and inspired by his mother’s service in remote villages, he founded the Hercilia Paz Foundation, providing free psychological services, teacher well-being programs, legal assistance, and personal development workshops to more than 1,000 teachers annually. A survivor of school bullying, he created the national “Me Too…” program, offering free psychological and legal support to victims while leading prevention brigades across the country.

At the Cobán Agricultural Training School (EFA), located in Guatemala’s climate-vulnerable Dry Corridor, Fetzer has revolutionized agro-technical education through immersive, tech-driven pedagogy. He created the award-winning “Agrometaverse,” an educational model using Virtual Reality, AI-assisted simulations, agrogaming, and digital climate tools to train rural youth—80% of whom live in poverty—to become climate-resilient agricultural innovators. His “Agro-labs” in the Spatial metaverse have reduced technical errors, doubled production, improved grades by up to 65%, and tripled pass rates in agricultural modules. Under his leadership, students developed 11 prototypes of agroecological hydrogel, achieving up to 52% irrigation savings and mitigating drought impacts across vulnerable communities. The innovation won the 2025 National Innovative Ideas Award.

He has strengthened global citizenship through international agrotechnology partnerships with the FAO, WFP, VRinAgri, Coffee360, and universities such as Zamorano and EARTH. These initiatives produced a 40% increase in university acceptance rates and allowed students to operate high-end agricultural machinery virtually, building skills aligned with Agriculture 5.0 and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Fetzer has also played a national leadership role, co-authoring Guatemala’s reformed curriculum for agricultural training schools—their first update in 40 years—proposing environmental literacy, soft skills, Agriculture 4.0 competencies, and immersive methodologies now replicable nationwide. His Pentagon of Reading Comprehension model boosted literacy from 2/10 to 9/10, leading his Agro-Readers Club to win First Place at the 2024 International Reading Fair (FILGUA).

Beyond the classroom, Fetzer has led large-scale humanitarian and cultural projects. Through his foundation, he supported 7,000 survivors of Hurricanes Eta and Iota. His Teachers’ Reading Club now supports 3,000–6,000 educators per year, earning him the Educa 2025 International Award. He also mentors youth in the Cobán Folkloric Cultural Group, helping participants overcome addiction and emotional trauma through dance and cultural identity.

National authorities—including the Minister of Agriculture, the Governor of Alta Verapaz, and members of Congress—have publicly recognized his technological innovations, community impact, and transformation of rural education.

If awarded the Global Teacher Prize, he plans to build Guatemala’s first Teacher Wellness Center, expand national anti-bullying and literacy programs, create international agro-scholarships, scale climate-resilience training, and equip rural schools with agro-industrial laboratories.

César Guillermo Fetzer Paz’s defining achievement is his creation of an educational ecosystem that unites technology, climate resilience, literacy, and community empowerment—transforming agricultural education in Guatemala and offering a scalable model for the world.