BRINGING COLLABORATION TO NEW HEIGHTS

By Karen Alley

Working together to grow and learn has long been a part of the culture at Guilford College. Whether it’s through the traditional classroom setting with professors teaching students or within the community as students learn from each other and from mentors in organizations outside the college, the Quaker tradition values communion with each other. Now, with the creation of The Guilford Edge, the emphasis on collaborative learning is more clearly defined and encouraged. Part of The Guilford Edge program includes a new semester schedule which has enhanced the collaborative learning environment with a whole new slate of course opportunities. Each semester is broken down into two segments, one three weeks long and the other 12 weeks. The two types of class structures offer plenty of room for creative class environments and new avenues of learning.

Food and Faith: Getting Out in the Community

This new 3-week course created by Bronwyn Tucker and Wess Daniels offers many aspects of collaborative learning, but one that stands out is the chance for students to get off campus and interact with the community.

In Fall 2019, students visited St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church’s free, walk-in community lunch, went to a local church that worships on a farm after doing work in the community garden, and visited a Quaker community where land has been preserved through the Piedmont Land Conservancy. “Getting out to other places helps students see other people with their own history and path in life, and their own different experiences with food,” Bronwyn says. “The intensive nature of the class led to real bonding opportunities and a depth of personal introspection you don’t necessarily get in the typical semester-long course.”

Modern Homesteading: Team Teaching for Enhanced Experiences

Bronwyn is also collaborating with fellow teacher Jenny Kimmel on a new 3-week class for Fall 2020, Modern Homesteading. Students will immerse themselves in farm life, get the chance to participate in some of the daily chores, while also learning about topics such as composting, permaculture, tree identification and food preservation.

Half of the time students will be working and learning on Bronwyn’s farm and at a goat dairy; the other half will be spent at Jenny and her brother’s farm in Rockingham County where they raise pigs and sheep, as well as vegetables and flowers.

“This is a class that couldn’t have happened without collaboration,” Bronwyn says. “Not only do the students get a chance to experience first-hand the work of two different farms, but Jenny and I share the load of a very timeintensive course offering.”

This teamwork not only brings an enhanced experience to the students, but also helps the two teachers bring their best work to this endeavor. Jenny says, “When you teach a class you’re up there in front of 20 pairs of eyes all expecting something of you, and having someone there next to you feeding your confidence makes a big difference.”

Permaculture Design: Teaching Each Other

Jenny also teaches Guilford’s Permaculture Design Certification, which gives students the design skills and practical tools necessary to create resilient, healthy communities. Much like the Food and Faith class, this course takes students out to different farms, gardens and organizations to learn from experts in the field. “This course is really all about collaborative learning, from the collaboration with local experts in the community to the collaborative learning between students,” Jenny says. She recounts a story from the last session when a student said, ‘one person doesn’t know it all, but together we learn a lot.’ “It was just such a great example of our interconnectedness, and how all our voices come together to learn, adding new perspectives with learning happening in multiple layers.”

Wild Foraging: Voices from the Farm

Gaining knowledge from multiple perspectives is one of the benefits of the Wild Foraging class, as well. Taught by Jenny, Eva Moss and Nick Mangili, the course introduces students to wild foods in the field and woods of the Piedmont and their many uses, from nutritional to medicinal and textile purposes. “All three of us are farmers, but we all have different backgrounds and bring different perspectives to our work,” Nick says.

In the classroom, on the farm and in the community, collaboration is part of the fabric of Guilford life. “Learning to be in communion with one another is in its very essence a peaceful act,” Jenny says. “Our students aren’t just learning a specific subject, they’re learning to be good humans.”

Supporting Collaborative Learning through Farm Fellows

Marlene McCauley, chair of the Sustainable Food Systems department, knows first-hand just how important the Guilford College farm is to the collaborative learning pillar of The Guilford Edge. “The farm, and student involvement on the farm, was the inspiration for starting the SFS major and is a great resource for many collaborative learning opportunities,” Marlene says. Nick Mangili, the farm manager, keeps things going with the help of student volunteers, but Marlene and Nick saw the opportunity for so much more. That inspired Marlene and her husband, Steve Green, to fund a Farm Fellow Program. The fellowship created a paid position for a recent graduate to work with Nick for one year, assisting with running the farm and teaching the farm practicum classes.

“Having Will Briar ’19, our current Farm Fellow, has really given me the opportunity to do more work with the students,” Nick says. “Not only was I able to help teach the Wild Foraging class, but I also traveled with students to Italy on the spring semester’s study abroad program.”

The fellow program is also beneficial to the student, giving them hands-on farm management experience that’s important when applying for jobs. “The big thing our students are missing is working on the farm in the summer, when we’re harvesting and planning the next season,” Nick says. “This program gives a student the opportunity to learn about how things work on a farm while staying within the college environment.”

The next goal of the Farm Fellow Program is to lengthen the time of the fellowship to a 15-month commitment. “The longer time period would have the Fellow here until August so they experience two summers,” Nick said. “Also their time would overlap with the incoming Fellow, providing an opportunity for learning and sharing between those two folks.”

Eventually the program could expand to two 15-month positions. “There’s the capacity to do so much more on the farm that we’re limited in right now due to labor constraints, from adding livestock to starting agri-forestry practices,” Nick says. “The Farm Fellow Program would help us see those projects to fruition.”

If you would like to make a gift in support of the Farm Fellowship Program, go to www.giving.guilford.edu.

Photos by Jenna Schad