TU: Groundwork Jacksonville Partners with FSCJ to Expand their Green Team initiative
The shelf held both a collection of makeshift hydroponic gardens and the attention of a cluster of Jacksonville high school students.
Already, the teenagers — many who’ve never participated in gardening at all — knew the procedures to keep their little crop alive. Jada Cummings, a 16-year-old member of Groundwork Jacksonville’s Green Team, lifted her canister’s lid and dipped a piece of paper into the water.
The paper, a soft yellow, turned blue-green as it reacted with the liquid’s acidity level.
Just about neutral, Cummings concluded.
“Maybe one day I’ll make my own garden with my family,” she said.
With the skills she’s learning at the Groundwork Jacksonville summer apprenticeship program, she just might.
The program launched three years ago with 10 students, and this year it is working with 20 more living in neighborhoods along Duval County’s Emerald Necklace — a greenway project to connect the Northbank Riverwalk to A. Philip Randolph Boulevard, then Hogans Creek to the S-Line Rail Trail and west to North Riverside, McCoys Creek and Unity Plaza.
The goal, said Groundwork Jacksonville interim Executive Director Alyssa Bourgoyne, is to encourage youth to create healthy, environmental community initiatives and to consider future careers in science-related fields.
This year, though, the program is shifting.
Groundwork Jacksonville and Florida State College at Jacksonville recently partnered to offer new opportunities for FSCJ students to participate in environmental improvement projects in the urban core, while providing Groundwork Jacksonville access to FSCJ faculty and STEM programs. The nonprofit also moved its office to the downtown Advanced Technology Center located at FSCJ.
“I can’t teach hydroponics or aquaponics,” Bourgoyne said. “What I can teach is environmental values and hands-on projects that benefit [the Green Team’s] neighborhoods along the Emerald Necklace.”
What does this mean for the students? It means they gain an understanding of how to build environmental ethics into their everyday lives. Bourgoyne teaches them about littering, using recyclable and reusable products, biking as a mode of health transportation, and more.
Then, with FSCJ’s help, they also access a full range of science, technology and engineering enrichment. Students learn from professor David Beall at the college about a variety of subjects — from food safety to epidemiology, from biology to hydroponics. Beall helps students connect what they learn in the physical exercises to what they learn in the classroom, FSCJ Dean of Arts and Sciences Sondra Evans said.
“Most of these students are from right here in the urban core — and it allows them to see what’s right here in the neighborhood,” Beall said. “Groundworks needed a home. It was a natural synergy for us — being where we are and them doing what they are within the community. It’s quite logical.”
Groundwork Jacksonville’s summer program combines paid stipend work with volunteer service hours. Two days a week, students participate in FSCJ class assignments and Groundwork Jacksonville projects, such as pollinator gardens and creek cleanup.
Fridays, however, are free. Participants gets to pick between activities — and sometimes those are dedicated volunteer projects. Other times they can be group fun like archery. For a select group of students, the summer concludes with a trip to Yellowstone National Park to join Groundwork USA’s annual event.
Cummings, who will be traveling to Yellowstone, will be leaving Florida or Georgia for the first time in her life. It will also be her first time on an airplane.
“It’s a new experience, and I’ll get to meet people from across the country,” she said. “They say it’s really beautiful, and I want to see something besides Jacksonville.”
According to Bourgoyne, when the summer ends, Groundwork Jacksonville’s staff can see a change in the teenagers’ understanding of how their actions improve or degrade their neighborhoods. An extra benefit, not entirely expressed in Groundwork Jacksonville’s mission, is that the students then return to their high school science classrooms with a greater understanding of science in general.
Madison Morgan, who aspires to be a doctor, said she inquired about the program after moving to Springfield with her mother.
“It’s been really great engaging with the community and with a whole group of kids who have the same interests as me,” she said. “Plus, it’s been nice to be able to learn in a city where I didn’t know I had this many options.”
Green Team is just one initiative of Groundwork Jacksonville, a nonprofit created to clean and redevelop the Emerald Necklace and convert contaminated land into parks, playgrounds and public greenspace. To get involved in Groundwork Jacksonville, interested individuals can volunteer at a variety of events, help fundraise or donate to the cause. More information can be found at groundworkjacksonville.org.