The approach
I connect with individuals, community organizations, or institutions to find opportunities for students in my classes to lend their time and expertise to address a problem that the organization has identified. My students have some expertise in the plant sciences, so I look for places where this expertise is welcomed. Collaborators have ranged from individual farmers to nonprofits to the local hospital to state parks. In all cases, students work directly with individuals from those organizations. During most of these activities, students get away from campus and work with non-academics. With preparation and planning, they accomplish a great deal in a short amount of time. Perhaps most importantly for them, they experience gratitude directly from the recipients. While the impact of receiving gratitude on well-being has not been measured in my classes, it is obvious from student feedback that these experiences can be a highlight of their Cornell experience.
The findings
In my classes in plant sciences and global development, students have engaged in the following projects: improving the landscaping at Cayuga Medical Center, restoring a historical foundation at the Cayuga Nature Center, re-establishing trails at Taughannock State Park, building trails for a park in the Town of Ulysses, landscaping the Trumansburg Conservatory of Music and Arts, and landscaping a Habitat for Humanity house. In these examples, students apply their knowledge of plants to improve the assets of the community organization. Often these organizations lack the expertise or manpower to accomplish these needed tasks, but with some planning, a group of 30 students can work for a few hours and make a significant impact.
In another example, students in my berry crops class are divided into groups and work as consulting teams with relatively new farmers to develop a business plan for a future farm. Students get to integrate their learnings and ideas into a proposed plan and growers come to class and hear lots of great ideas from young minds about what their farm could evolve into.
Results are in the form of testimonials from those who were recipients of the classes’ efforts:
“I just want to say WOW, you all are truly amazing. I am thoroughly impressed and pleasantly surprised with the amount of information everyone presented. You all nailed it. If interested, you can all follow our farm on Instagram and watch your plans come to life! Once again, I thank you all for the work you have put into this.” -A.J.
“I am just amazed at the work that your students accomplished with this project. They have never been on the farm, yet they were spot on! They have some very amazing and creative ideas for it to be able to produce and develop into a very fun and profitable business. It was so refreshing to hear innovative ideas that were so insightful. They covered every area from bugs to soil to how to increase business and market. Thank you so much for choosing our farm for this project. Thank you so much for all you have done for our farm and for me!” -C.C.
“From B.H. Thanks for all your help with re-establishing the trail along Taughannock Creek. We couldn’t have done it without your help as we don’t have the necessary staff. Now that the trail has been cleared, we plan to give it an official name." -B.H.
Of course, the best feedback is when the recipients thank the students directly.