Kirksville grows a garden

Gardening for a grade last semester created an environmental project that is still growing in the Kirksville community.

The Grassroots Environmentalism course is a student-taught service learning class that allows students to reach out to the community through projects that will have a lasting impact on the community. Senior William Erker participated in the course along with four other environmentally conscious students.

"The class carries an attitude that we as people are smart and intelligent," Erker said. "We should continue to learn [about the environment] but unless we're putting it into action, there's no point."

Erker said he enrolled in the course to learn more about environmentalism and to do something cool within the community. He said he and the other students in the class originally wanted to start a garden on Truman's campus but the idea evolved into creating a garden at Ray Miller Elementary School in Kirksville. The group worked last semester and this summer with elementary students to teach them the importance of agriculture and gardening at home.

"The kids have been taking home [the food] and eating it, or we're just eating it right there," he said. "The freshest food in the world is a pea or a bean pod picked right off the plant and eaten right away."

Professor of biology Michael Kelrick oversees the course, which is entering its fifth semester after the success of many sustainable projects throughout the Kirksville area. These include Beta Beta Beta's Science Saturday, a recycling program for Greentop and a raised garden for wheelchair users at Manor Care in Kirksville.

Kelrick said he thinks this project educates community members about the food they consume and the importance of gardening at home.

"There is all kinds of information out there to indicate, for example, that if you were to average the distance that the average item on a dinner plate has traveled, it is probably something like 1,500 miles," Kelrick said. "Despite the fact that Kirksville is [in an agricultural region] people are buying things from across the country. Our food is not only ridiculously subsidized and underpriced but it comes at a huge environmental cost, which everybody has to bear, and most people don't even acknowledge it."

Kelrick said the project teaches children in the community important lessons about the production of their food.

"It's important to acquaint people with what it takes to grow food and the pleasures of gardening and [to encourage] them to acknowledge and understand that there is nothing more fundamental and wholesome than growing the food that you eat," Kelrick said. "You are what you eat."

Pennie Schnieder, a fifth grade teacher at Ray Miller, said a few of her students were involved in the project.

The group meets in her classroom during the school year to have lessons about recycling, composting and plant care.

Truman students and members of Environmental Campus Organization visit the garden every Tuesday at 3 p.m. to cultivate and harvest the fruits and vegetables produced with some of the elementary students.

"It's one of those things I have so much pride in," he said. "I would kind of recommend that people jump out of their comfort zones a little bit and find something a little more exciting that will bring a little life to their life."

Oren Howkins, who attended Truman for his freshman year, said he attended a few schools for financial and family reasons. Although he only attended Truman for one year, he said he definitely would have done things a little differently by studying more and partying less.

"Having fun is well and good, and it's great to get out there and meet people and be a part of something, but you can't let your grades slip,"

Howkins said. "You can't just throw it all to the winds and think everything's going to be all right."

He also said the people he connected with outside the classroom taught him lessons more valuable than anything he learned from school. For example, his fraternity taught him the lessons of selflessness, looking out for and considering other people's feelings and ideas when making a decision.

Brian Krylowicz, director of University of Counseling Services, said that although the first few weeks are meant for socializing, students should expect to buckle down once the initial fun and games cease.

"The first couple of weeks you do get to be really social," Krylowicz said. "Then it kind of stops, and you have to keep up with all your reading and all your assignments. And part of this is making sure you realize that the social part exists for Truman weekend."

Truman students still can and should socialize, but they have to learn to balance their social lives with schoolwork in order to be successful, he said.

Krylowicz said he wants freshmen to meet people outside the residence hall during Truman Week. Almost everyone is afraid of meeting new people, but closing yourself off to the experience will only hinder you, he said.

"It's really anxious to go into a room of people you don't know all that well and try to get to know people and make friends," he said. "Don't listen to that anxiety. You need to go through that anxiety and say, 'Yeah I am scared, but everybody else in this room is scared too. And I'm just going to go in here and start connecting with somebody.'"

Research shows new students will initially become friends with their residence hall neighbors, although most will also branch out eventually to their classmates or club members, Krylowicz said.

"What it requires to be friends is not quality time, but oftentimes it's quantity time," he said. "And what residence halls offer is quantity time."

Students who are having difficulties adjusting to college life should first seek out their student advisers for advice, he said. If that doesn't work, and you've honestly tried to get involved and you are seriously feeling hindered or depressed, come to the University Counseling Services and make a free appointment, he said.