Reflections From YLA - Rohan

My name is Rohan, and I’m a rising junior at Staunton High School. This is my first year working at Project GROWS.

Working at Project GROWS was a blast. It was great to get out and work with my community and meet new people. During my time here, I was able to teach and learn some new skills and find ways to better myself. One of the things I learned about was how farming is done. Nowadays farming uses big machinery, but here we partake in a practice called no till which is better for the land and environment and does not use them.

Project GROWS hosts a summer camp, and as a YLA member, from time to time I got to work with the campers and teach them about what we do here. One of my favorite memories with the campers was one of the activities we did: a three legged race where we got to team up with the campers. Everyone had a great time.

Working with the amazing people at Project GROWS was a great experience and the skills I learned and used in practice are skills I will continue to use for a long time. Being with Project GROWS really sheds light at what a good, reliable and organic farm is and should be and the impact that it has in the communities where it visits. My favorite topic was learning how to make reliable sorts of compost for your own garden and for the farm. 

During the eight weeks, we learned people skills and how to share the important information that was learned and this really helped us with talking to people. 

Overall the experience at Project GROWS was great, I loved to work with the community and help get food to people who are less fortunate. Working with the kids and working with the staff and the other YLA members was great. I got to meet new people that I would not meet on my own and make new friends. Being able to work with and give back to my community was one of the best parts.

I can't wait to return next year and do it again.