Garden for the Good
Garden for the Good is a project that proves volunteering is good for the soil and for the soul.
Another example of cross-curricular collaboration here at The Summit, the garden puts our science, religion and art curricular standards at the service of our community and environmental stewardship. On a warm day, you might see students elbow deep in the garden as they tend the soil and plant the seeds. Later you will find them observing plant growth and sketching their observations as they label the parts of the plants in their journals. Even the worms the students use for vermi-composting deliver lessons on invertebrate muscle systems.
Our mission is to empower our students to “value and improve the world they inherit.” Through Garden for the Good, students learn how growing their own food can reduce their carbon footprint as harvest machinery and delivery vehicles are not utilized in bringing the fruits of their labors from garden to table. Our students experience themselves as social change agents working on behalf of the common good.
Service learning projects like Garden for the Good make an academic connection that make them distinctively different from community service or volunteering. Here, we teach environmental stewardship, nutrition and art while at the same time build foundational components of character for life.
That’s what we do – every day.