Bay Boysen learns while serving in the U.S. Virgin Islands

2015 Aug 6

Boysen, who majors in Horticulture at Iowa State University, was part of a five student team working to integrate horticultural education into the curriculum and school lunch program on the island of St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands this summer. Additionally, the students worked to install and manage landscapes for food production, creating a positive perception of horticulture and environmental science.

This service learning experience is part of the Education And Resiliency Through Horticulture (EARTH) program at Iowa State. EARTH is a year-round program where students from Iowa State spend 8 to 12 weeks on St. John completing a variety of community development projects on the island. The Iowa State students apply knowledge learned on campus by teaching horticulture, environmental science and culinary science to K-12 classes at Gifft Hill School.

In addition to the opportunity to pass along concepts learned on campus, students are able to experience hands-on learning in landscape creation, sustainable food production and place-based environmental science in a location beyond Iowa.