Final day Selfie at the food forest
Week 3 Reflection
Well my internship has come to an end. I had an absolutely wonderful time in this community getting to know people and give back in whatever ways I could. Throughout this experience I really learned to appreciate a different culture and become immersed in it. Another thing I gained through this experience was becoming more savvy with various tools. I learned my way a box cutter pretty well by having to cut out lots of cardboard signs in the shapes of arrows for an event. Also, when I was constructing my link project by using different power tools such as power drills, and jigsaws. As useful as school can be I cannot wait to get out into the working world and I am very fortunate to have had this opportunity to experience that.
Week 2 Reflection
Week 2 is in the books and it was amazing. Since the seed exchange is now over I was able to turn my focus to completing my link project. I have gotten a lot of work done on the duck truck which is my link project. First, I acquired materials which proved to be pretty difficult because it took a whole day to do it and they were pretty hard to find. The next day after that we began the building process and my mentor and I were able to get the basic frame for the duck truck completed. On Saturday I was able to help one of my mentors Krista build a new area for the Muscovy ducks to live. That is my second week of my internship in a nutshell and I am looking forward to finishing strong this upcoming week.
Week 1 Reflection
My internship so far has been absolutely amazing! Right now I could not think of a better place to be doing this and right now don't want to think about leaving. This week I spent a lot of time helping prepare for the seed exchange that happened here in the community. This event ended up having a huge turnout and involved about twenty tents. The seed exchange promotes an anti GMO movement and gives growers and planters a chance to exchange plant materials and it is also a good way to build community. For helping prepare for this event I painted signs and went to a very beautiful botanical garden to gain new knowledge about plant species here in Kauai. This ended up being a very special experience for me and something I hope to participate in again in the future. This week was overall really smooth and I look forward to learning new knowledge and having new experiences again next week!
Day 1 Selfie 4/8/16
Aloha from the sunshine state! Today is not so sunny. I made it into Kauai last night. I spent the weekend in Las Vegas doing a xeriscaping project for an elderly man’s yard. It was really interesting to select plans and hardscapes that would be low maintenance for him. He was really pleased that I made his yard an enjoyable place to be again. He hardly leaves the house, so this was important.
I went from one of the driest places in the country to the wettest. I spent today touring the community garden and food forest. I met Krista, one of my mentors, and she showed me the ducks and issues they were having with the duck truck. I may look sort of miserable in the picture of me outside the food forest, but I haven’t been miserable at all and I could not be more excited to spend my internship in this absolutely gorgeous place!
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I went from one of the driest places in the country to the wettest. I spent today touring the community garden and food forest. I met Krista, one of my mentors, and she showed me the ducks and issues they were having with the duck truck. I may look sort of miserable in the picture of me outside the food forest, but I haven’t been miserable at all and I could not be more excited to spend my internship in this absolutely gorgeous place!
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Reflection and Anticipation
For my internship I will be splitting my time between two sister non profit organizations Malama Kauai and Regeneration International Botanical Gardens working with food sustainability in Kauai. Originally I thought I was going to be interning at a law form somewhere as I have always been interested in it since eighth grade when I did an internship at the La Plata County courthouse when I was at Mountain Middle School. When I heard about this opportunity to perhaps intern in Kauai I had to pursue this. Both these organizations that I am splitting my time between strive for promoting sustainability on the island by growing and harvesting good organic food. My mentor for my internship will be Pat Hagan who is actively involved in food sustainability with these organizations. With my time spent with him I hope to acquire new skills and knowledge about food, gardening, and building that I can later apply.
My goals from this internship are to interact with a different culture and learn about how to promote sustainability not only through food, but in other ways in the community I will be in and even my own. For my project I will build a duck truck that will be used to house ducks on the island and also allow them to eat the slugs and other bugs that are eating away at the natural vegetation. Challenges that arose when landing an internship were that I couple of places such as a law firm and another non profit organization Camp Kesem both located in Wisconsin that I reached out to fell through which caused me to have to scramble to find one and I feel like I found this internship just in time. Overall, I am absolutely thrilled about this opportunity and cannot wait for this anticipated amazing experience!
My goals from this internship are to interact with a different culture and learn about how to promote sustainability not only through food, but in other ways in the community I will be in and even my own. For my project I will build a duck truck that will be used to house ducks on the island and also allow them to eat the slugs and other bugs that are eating away at the natural vegetation. Challenges that arose when landing an internship were that I couple of places such as a law firm and another non profit organization Camp Kesem both located in Wisconsin that I reached out to fell through which caused me to have to scramble to find one and I feel like I found this internship just in time. Overall, I am absolutely thrilled about this opportunity and cannot wait for this anticipated amazing experience!