Internship for Patton Valley Vineyard, Fall 2017: Patton Valley Vineyard is a certified B-Corp Company, with various other prestigious sustainability certifications. They specialize in Pinot Noir and Rosé varietal wines. While interning at Patton Valley, I assisted in the harvest process, as well as maintaining sustainable practices. I designed and implemented a Monarch Butterfly habitat on the property of Patton Valley. I decided to create a monarch habitat due to the declining populations of an ever increasing vital species to our environment. I planted diverse varieties of native species on the property in hope that they will attract and help the monarchs thrive. During my time at Patton Valley, I have learned a lot about the general functions of a vineyard, and numerous steps that create wine. I have been acting as the head of sustainability for Patton Valley, and I have come to learn that even when a company is already very sustainable and conscious, there are always areas of improvement. For more information about the project, please click on the attached link for a PDF file of my work:
SOS 498 Capstone Class, Spring Semester 2017: For my capstone class, I worked with a business professional to help promote organic and sustainable farming in India. I worked on writing grant proposals for our partner, Rohit, as well as creating a detailed survey for his customers and farmers. This survey was an essential part for gaining detailed data to include for future grants from the government, outlining the positive impact that Rohit has been able to create in India. Rohit is the founder of Banyan Roots. Banyan Roots primarily sells seeds and produce from his certified organic farmers, which in turn enable these farmers to have an increased quality of life as well as supplying the education program for other farmers with enough funding to continue on the trend of sustainable farming in India.
Study Abroad in New Zealand, Summer 2016: I explored 6 different cities across both Islands, and helped restore wetlands and urban areas after the Earthquake of 2011. I replanted native species to increase disaster resiliency and to help bring back some green space to the central business district of Christchurch. In addition to restoring natural spaces, I conducted an ethnohydrology study that focused on how people in the town of Waikato connect with their major water sources.
Girl Scout Gold Award, Summer 2014: For my Girl Scout Gold Award, I created over 400 cookbooks in two different languages, English and Spanish. I designed these cookbooks for my local food pantry. My local food pantry was lacking healthful foods as well as the knowledge of how to cook and serve fresh produce. Due to the low volume of fresh produce the food pantry brings in each month, the clients of the food pantry rarely see these foods and end up shying away from them because they do not know how to cook them. With the help of a local farmer from my farmers market, I was able to increase the amount of fresh produce donated to the food pantry had each week, and I began to educate the clients about the importance of healthy food and how easy it is to cook it.
Brief examples of previous volunteer work: 1: weeding native Aloe Plants in New Zealand. (Not featured: replanting native species near Christchurch) 2: trail maintenance on Oregon Coast 3: building and painting tables for an elementary school in the Amazon Rainforest