School Garden Project has been extremely fortunate to host Phoebe Lett as a Connect to Complete AmeriCorps service member this past spring (and again in the fall of 2015) for a total of 300 hours. Connect to Complete service members mainly serve in the Portland Metro area helping to create positive school environments as a preventative measure to curb chronic absenteeism amongst k-12 students.

When we were unexpectedly afforded the opportunity to host a member of our own here in Lane County, we thought immediately of Phoebe. In the fall of 2014, she excelled as a dedicated and inspired intern through our education program. Now, as a service member, she will be awarded a minimal stipend, and educational award for her service. As a service member she is gaining valuable professional experience as well. However, her commitment to this service project clearly lies in sharing the wonders of the natural world with children. When asked what her goals post college might be, Phoebe didn’t skip a beat sharing that her she sees herself working within the field of environmental education, whether through garden, outdoor or even zoo based programming.

Through her role this spring, Phoebe has worked with hundreds of students, assisting our teaching staff at eleven local area classrooms and three after-school programs. She has taken on leadership roles as well, such as planning and hosting a garden work party at Page Elementary school in early May.

This coming fall, her experience with School Garden Project will continue to provide her ample opportunity to hone the teaching skills she has already developed. This September she will transition from an assistant educator to that of a lead educator during one of our after-school STEM in the Garden Programs. We have so appreciated all of her hard work and creative thinking and look forward to the opportunity to have her back at the start of the 2015/16 school year!