Continued Learning at Project GROWS… - Lia Dorvil

My name is Lia Dorvil, and I attended Staunton High School. I worked at Project GROWS the summer after my junior year, and I enjoyed it so much that I applied again this summer. Though I had already been here before, I learned and experienced so many new things this year. For example, I learned that tomatoes can continue ripening off of the stem while peppers do not. Learning more about agriculture, and developing workplace skills has meant so much to me. 

Project GROWS has allowed me to become more outspoken, and confident in my leadership abilities. When it comes to everyday farm tasks my favorite is harvesting. It gives me such a rewarding feeling to see the literal fruits of our labor. Participating in the mobile market also gave me joy. It made me happy to be able to interact, and see the people in our local community purchase the food we helped to grow at an affordable price. Something that surprised me when I started working here is the amount of bugs. I spend more time swatting away little critters than I expected to. One time I stood still for too long while clearing out of bed of kale, and when I looked down, a large group of them were crawling up my pants. Not fun. But experiences like those helped me build endurance. 

Another important skill that was strengthened while working here was attention to detail. Like being able to tell when a tomato is ripe, or telling the difference between a crop and a weed while weeding. Even with this skill being strengthened, my coworkers and I have made the mistake of pulling out a crop or two. We’ve done a lot of replanting. Having a good attention to detail will help me make sure any work I do moving forward is quality. Though I do not plan on becoming a full time farmer, this job position has given me the skills and confidence to build my own garden. Thank you Project GROWS.