Marisa Bernard’s Story
My name is Marisa Bernard and I teach special education at an elementary school in Indiana. I have a classroom garden that is designed with a cultural theme. I began the "Garden Reaching Out to the World" (GROW) Project with our students, who are predominantly Caucasian. This project provides an opportunity to share our blessings with children from all over the world and at the same time GROW into special people through giving. We involve our whole school community to work together to make this meaningful for our students, as well as meet some of the needs of the children in other parts of the world. We ask the school community to donate school supplies, which are stored in our classroom garden area and the students put together supply boxes for the children from around the world. Thus far, various mission teams have taken our supplies to India, Haiti, New York City, and most recently the Highlands of Ecuador.
I was invited by Anna Taft, the executive director of the Tandana Foundation (http://tandanafoundation.org) to participate in their summer of 2010 volunteer program. The Tandana Foundation is a non-profit organization that offers cross-cultural volunteer opportunities in Highland Ecuador. Tandana coordinates service projects and volunteer vacations that offer visitors to Ecuador the unique opportunity to be guests rather than tourists, to form cross-cultural friendships, to experience a rich indigenous culture, and to make a difference in the lives of new friends. They have a scholarship program that allows rural Ecuadorian students to continue their secondary education as well as participate in experiential education programs.
The summer volunteer program, in which I participated this last summer (2010) was in an indigenous community in the mountains of Ecuador. I lived with a host family and experienced local culture first-hand. Jorge and Ximena, along with their two beautiful daughters, opened their home to me during my visit. I helped to coordinate Engish classes, hiked in the beautiful Andes, learned organic gardening from my host family, met traditional healers, and much more with my new friends. Though I had to cut my visit short because of a grave illness in my family, this was an experience of a lifetime.
To continue the garden theme, Jorge and Ximena taught me about sustainability and how to grow and nurture an organic garden from seeds. My school district believes it takes all of us working together to take care of and sustain our earth. Conservation and recycling initiatives are a couple of the ecological efforts of our District. I will build on those efforts by developing an organic garden in our school courtyard during the 2010-2011 school year. I believe this project will help to enrich young lives and teach sustainability methods for a healthier planet. This garden would be an excellent cross-curricular opportunity for the students in the areas of math (plotting garden areas), ecology/science, physical education, nutrition and wellness, and sociology (building strong social skills, teamwork, and work ethic).
The students I teach range greatly in age and in ability. Some exhibit behavioral disabilities, while others struggle physically or mentally. It is my hope that in our organic garden, these differences and struggles will dissipate. The Best Buddies program at our high school involves a special education student pairing with a general education student to engage in enriching activities together. They are very excited to join us in our efforts to develop and maintain our organic garden. I envision teenagers working with elementary students, physically challenged students wielding gardening tools with confidence, and emotional problems melting away in the freshness of nature. One of the priorities of the Indiana Health Department is to fight obesity in children through increased physical activity and promoting healthy eating. I believe this project would address this issue.
This project is very exciting for me and it will allow the students and me to "blossom" as individuals who embrace cultural diversity and an earth-friendly lifestyle, along with the enthusiasm to be life-long learners!
~Marisa Bernard