Service Learning Reflection

I have been primarily volunteering at the SOL garden. Early on during my volunteer work Miles, the garden coordinator, took notice of my love for painting. Thus, I’ve been given various art projects every time I’ve shown up. I am currently working on the main sign for the SOL garden, which is placed right outside the fence facing the oncoming street. My vision for the mural in which Miles assigned me, is for it to have various mushrooms growing at the bottom, and have trees at the top with failing leaves covering most of the board. Currently, I only have the lettering and grass done, but Miles made sure no one else was going to touch it!

            Although I’ve been mainly painting, I have done some gardening work such as pulling weeds and planting rye in one of the raised beds. I learned how to make seed mixes and how to extract seeds from various plants and flowers. I also got to talk to Miles about building a mushroom garden in the shady corner of the SOL garden. Academically, I learned many hands on techniques in regards to planting foliage, nurturing it, and also what soil sows the best crops.

            After planting the rye, I came back a few weeks later to check on it. To my surprise, it had grown almost completely! I was shocked as well as extremely pleased to see what my hard work had done. I now understand what people mean when they say that gardening can be therapeutic, nurturing and watching what your hard work can do is able to make one feel refreshed. Personally, I learned that I would love to have my own little garden of my own to take care of. I also learned that I love getting my hands dirty, and that this would be a great stress relief for me.

            When painting, I have been collaborating with Anneisia with projects. We first visualize what we want done, then I sketch it out for us, and then we fill it in with color. I have been learning valuable collaboration skills thanks to my service learning experience, and I learned that I am capable of working with partners very well.

            In the future I definitely want to have my own garden, and even educate people more on gardening as well as the health benefits associated with it. Since taking this class and gardening, I have been developing healthier lifestyle choices. For example, I have been eating a lot healthier and I have been primarily eating the salads and vegetables at brown. (However, tomorrow is my cheat day because my friend found out she has $300 left on her declining balance and is going to buy us all personal pizzas) So hopefully I will keep up my healthy lifestyle choices and will definitely continue to try and keep up with volunteer work.