July 22, 2024 | Education
Summer Stories: Youth Development Program, Week 4
An environmental justice workshop, a field trip and lots of farm work kept the students busy in week four.
The Youth Development Program is a paid opportunity for high-school-age students to develop and hone various skills in preparation for life beyond the classroom. The summer session is called the Seed Crew, and is 8 weeks of working, learning, and connecting as a team.
We began our week four with temperatures in the 90s. This warm weather was again a challenge for students and staff. We took a lot of breaks, and that helped us respond a lot better than we did the 1st week of warm weather. We wrapped up our farm work at 11am to enjoy a little air conditioning at the main office. We enjoyed lunch and then did an environmental justice workshop. The students helped define the term and divided into groups to brainstorm ways different factors can lead to environmental injustices. They focused on Classism, Sexism, Colonialism, & Ableism. They then journaled about any environmental injustices they’ve dealt with in their own lives. The overwhelming theme was derecho recovery and how their neighborhood was helped or responded after that natural disaster.
More farm work was scheduled for the rest of the week, focusing on trimming up the garlic to get it out of the drying area to make room for all the onions we need to harvest.
Tuesday’s workshop was designed to get students to understand their differences and their similarities. We read a statement and students would step across a line and face the rest of the group if the statement was true to them. There were a lot of unexpected outcomes, and the students really had to move out of their comfort zones for this one. As staff, we were impressed with the level of honesty and trust the students exhibited. 
Wednesday the students were treated to a field trip to Wilson’s Orchard. This was a new one for us, and the goal was to see how a farm operates that is open to the public for “you-pick” offerings. Over the past few years, Wilson’s has diversified their offerings to the public and it is truly a unique place. We got to take a tractor ride around the farm for our tour, and then found a place on the hill to work through our day’s workshop.
Thursday was all farmers market prep.
It’s hard to believe our eight-week program is already halfway through. Stay tuned for more updates next week!