Workforce
Arvada West hort program is taking off Rachel Miller has a classroom and space to grow By Becky Garber-Godi
E
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very day kids come into class excited to see how their seeds are growing!” says Arvada West (A-West) High School teacher Rachel Miller. She was recruited to launch the first Ag-Ed program at the school, under which ALCC Landscape Career Pathways resides. This is her third year at A-West as the Ag-Ed teacher, but only the first year there’s been space in her classroom to grow plants. Her classroom the previous two years was the computer lab. The 2018-2019 school year has looked up for Miller and her horticulture program. Her classroom has roomy tables well-suited for hands-on projects, and natural light for students to grow seedlings. The back door opens to a wide-open area where there’s a hoop house and a lot of lawn area where her next project will be installing raised beds to grow veggies. Future plans call for creating demonstration gardens for low-water plants and areas where students will practice handson landscape and irrigation skills.
“Every day kids come into class excited to see how their seeds are growing!” A devoted horticulturist, Miller said she found her passion almost kicking and screaming when she was in high school. In her junior year she was assigned to take a horticulture class, and try as she might, she couldn’t get out of the class. “I didn’t even know what horticulture was, but it was the best thing that ever happened to me! I fell in love with horticulture and FFA.”
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