Welcome to Gustavus Adolphus College’s Student Stories Series!
Garden and Administrative Intern for Evanston Grows
Major: Spanish, Religion and LALACS
1. Tell us more about your accomplishment.
Evanston Grows is a collective impact organization dedicated to bringing together resources in the Evanston community to reduce food insecurity through increasing access to locally grown produce and building community connections. In practice, they start and run multiple urban agriculture farms in the City of Evanston and then they have multiple farm stands weekly where they give away everything they harvested at their sites as well as having partnerships with whole foods, repurposing food that is otherwise going to be thrown away.
Primarily, I worked at two different garden operation sites, in the city that I have lived in my whole life, Evanston, which is directly north of the city of Chicago. I performed various tasks and exactly what I did varied by the day, doing anything from harvesting, prepping beds, planting, transplanting seedlings, weeding or constructing infrastructure for the gardens. Included in the internship was a weekly learning session where I learned the ins and outs of garden management, scale, planning, decision making and problem solving. Along with working directly in the gardens, I also worked as an administrative intern where I would table events for the Evanston Grows organization, spreading the word about our group and where people can acquire free, organic, locally grown, fresh produce. I used my Spanish language skills in order to communicate with a broader audience.
2. Why did you choose Gustavus Adolphus College?
Gustavus was first brought to my attention by being recruited to play soccer but I also knew I wanted to go to a smaller school where I would have the opportunity to build deep meaningful relationship with my peers but also my professors. It quickly met and exceeded all my expectations.
3. How have the Faculty and Staff helped you become career-ready?
My advisor, Pamela Kittelson, has been a world of help trying to connect me with opportunities and ideas. Also the Center for Career Development is super helpful in pointing you in the direction of actionable steps towards a career.
4. What was your most meaningful experience at Gustavus, and why?
This is an incredibly difficult question to answer because I feel as though my time at Gustavus and all the amazing people I have met in my 4 years here have shaped who I am as a person. Although if I had to point at one experience that was the most important in my development it would be my Jterm study abroad in Argentina and Chile backpacking in the Patagonia mountains. This experience taught me independence, grit and taught me what learning could be.
5. Which college course(s) prepared you for your career and why?
I am unsure because I don’t know what my career will be yet but I envision that GIS as well as most of the biology classes that have shaped my understanding of the world will be extremely useful in my future career.
6. Tell us about where your journey with your accomplishment began.
My Evanston Grows experience began in late May where I immediately became part of a tight knit community that was strongly committed to having a positive impact on the world. From the time I started working for Evanston Grows until August, I learned invaluable skills related to sustainable, organic food production while simultaneously fighting food insecurity in my very own community.
7. What steps did you take to achieve your accomplishment?
In order to get connected with Evanston Grows, I reached out initially to the administration because they were looking for Spanish speaking staff and because I had this skill they offered me a position working in the gardens.
8. How did the Center for Career Development assist you?
They confirmed that I could apply for the Engaged Learning Fund to help allow me to be apart of this amazing experience even though it was an unpaid internship.
9. Which individual, student organization, or mentor has influenced you most and in what way?
My parents and family have had the most influence on me as a person. They are both the kindest, most caring and yet unbelievably free people I know and they have worked so hard and diligently to give me and my siblings opportunities to explore and lead the lives we want.
10. What advice would you give to other students or prospective students?
I would tell other students or prospective students to take risks, try new things and more than anything say yes to opportunities that come your way.
11. Why do you think a prospective student should consider Gustavus?
I think Gustavus has a lot to offer any person in any realm of interest. More than anything I think Gustavus puts people who are maybe unsure of exactly what they want their future to look like in a position to explore, to try new things and to enjoy your college experience while you’re at it.
