The City/Country Classroom at The Philadelphia School (2015 – Present)

An ongoing educational program at The Philadelphia School (TPS) that coordinates garden based educational programming with Pre-K and Kindergarten students focusing on:

• Seed to Table curriculum that focuses on educating students and teachers in all the processes of growing food, from propagating plants from seed to preparation and historical uses of plants
• After school, and summer session Garden Club, furthering hands on learning, tending, and harvesting at the on-site garden
• Maintenance and care of the garden classroom, an extensive perennial and annual edible landscape that feature a variety of play spaces with fruits, flowers, herbs, and vegetables where students can learn and explore

Junior Farmers Program (2014-2016)

Coordinated growth of a citywide youth gardening program through Philadelphia Parks & Recreation Dept. at 30 City Recreation Centers

• Worked in partnership with Recreation Leaders and staff at each site to design and build educational vegetable, fruit and flower gardens that meet each particular site’s needs
• Coordinated team of educators who:
  • Propagated plants to distribute to citywide Junior Farmers gardens 
  • Co-created a seasonal garden curriculum of environmental education lessons
  • Stewarded youth gardens that grew food, flowers, and habitat
  • Taught weekly hands-on lessons to youth ages K-5 in the gardens through after-school and summer camp programs
  • Trained on-site staff to support stewarding the gardens and incorporate garden activities into their youth programs

The Learning Farm at the Horace Mann Elementary School (2016)

Working with teacher from the Green Team at the Horace Mann Elementary school we:

• Engaged hundreds of elementary students in a marathon of garden and orchard preparation, where they installed a small orchard themselves
• Educated through hands on experience the botany, proper planting technique and care of all plants installed in orchard

Parkside Edible Trail and Community Garden (2016 – Present)

Working with Camden County Historical Society (CCHS) to:

• Design and install an edible walking trail and community garden, that connects the grounds of CCHS to a sculpture park, and to the walking trails of the Parkside Redevelopment and Greening Plan
• Coordinate volunteer days with the following partners:
  • Rutgers & Princeton University students
  • Campbell’s Soup Volunteer Service Week members
  • Big Picture Learning Academy high school students
  • Parkside Business and Community in Partnership (PBCIP) community volunteer days with neighborhood residents
• Coordinate ongoing maintenance and site improvement with PowerCorps crews, volunteer groups, and CCHS staff

Plants Make Positive Places  (2015)

In collaboration with Philadelphia Parks and Recreation (PPR) we worked to :

• Teach PPR staff best practices for ecological gardening through Sustainable Land Care Trainings
• Creation and implementation of a native planting guide for park and trailhead entrance revitalization
• Installation of a native plant nursery in collaboration with PowerCorps at Greenland Nursery
• Implementation of park site survey for revitalization projects
• Installation of garden revitalization designs with Parks staff

Youth Program Coordination at Urban Tree Connection (2010-2014)

Cultivating creativity, leadership, cooperation and environmental stewardship through after school and summer programs at neighborhood-based community gardens

• Maintained large children’s garden, community garden and orchard that served as an outdoor classroom, gathering space
• Coordinated weekly youth programs for different age groups to build leadership at local community garden spaces:
  • Sprouts – pre-k through 2nd grade – getting to know our environment, scientific inquiry through hands-on investigation – bird watching, worm bins, compost, sowing seeds
  • Veggie Kids – 3rd through 8th grade – growing and tending to food crops throughout the season and distributing to community members
  • Teen Program – high school summer jobs mentoring Veggie Kids and Sprouts, and supporting a growing urban farm network of community gardens
• Volunteer Groups – worked with large volunteer groups (college students, community, corporate, and faith groups) to accomplish projects of all sizes – building a shed, cleaning up vacant lots, planting orchards