A Family for the Garden

Happy Monday, everyone!

I’m very excited to share with you an update on my internship this semester. As you know, I’ve been searching for a site for my April 1st project. This is my first reflection piece after selecting the site. Part of my learning journey is to share what I am learning.

First, I would like to thank you all for your applications and support over the past month. I had the opportunity to meet some amazingly talented and passionate individuals, and am excited to work with Jennifer and Phil!

I really enjoyed meeting them. Jennifer and Phil are very grateful for the opportunity and are open to any suggestions for this project! Jennifer has two children, and it would be a wonderful opportunity to teach them about sustainable agriculture and give them the gardening exposure early on in their life.

I am thrilled to share with you all some ideas of the design. The site may have multiple areas where we will plant. Volunteers will be able to work on the main area of the site, pictured below, the shaded bed near the side of the house, and a hanging flower/herb garden.

The main site will be a raised bed, featuring cinder blocks and a U shaped design to allow the family to walk through to tend to the garden.

I am also working on developing fundraising skills; which are key skills in today’s job market. I am learning to create a budget for this project as well. Your donations and/or sponsorships for the garden will help me bring this project to fruition and teach me lifelong skills.

The mission for this Student Leadership & Development Program is for students, like myself, to design and lead a project with help from Shamsa, my mentor, to develop the critical skills needed to succeed in the real world. These include communication, project management, leadership, collaboration, and presentation. Below are the skills that I am going to learn throughout this process! This internship is pretty rigorous and I’m doing all this with a full load from school and working. However, I’m excited and driven to grow from this experience and give it my all. I would highly recommend this experience to anyone looking to develop their professional skills- especially project planning!

Now that I have a site for this community engagement project, it is time to start fundraising! I am very grateful for the donations I have already received, and am asking you all to donate to my project. This project will provide me with the key skills for once I enter the real world.

I have raised $76 and need to raise $24 this week to keep me on track of raising $500 for this project.

Donate to my project here: https://www.gofundme.com/oliviavg

This project has taken me out of my comfort zone in many ways, and I am grateful for that! Meeting new people will always be tough, and asking people to help me financially complete the project was difficult for me. Lastly, growing up in a rural county with lots of acreage, the idea of creating the most efficient garden in the smallest space has been an adjustment! I have been researching topics such as square foot gardening and clay pot gardening.

Follow my journey at the following platforms!