Arvada West hort program is taking off

from Colorado Green May/June 2019

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Rachel Miller has a classroom and space to grow

By Becky Garber-Godi

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E“ 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 fi rst 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 fi rst 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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She also has students who, like she did, pushed back when placed in hort classes. She shared about one student who had to take Miller’s class last fall because there was no other elective he could take during that class period. He wasn’t happy at the time, but became engaged, and in spring semester he enrolled in two of her classes.

Not everyone will have this experience, says Miller. But she also recognizes that even if students don’t make the green industry their career choice, they will have gained skills to garden and do related tasks they can use the rest of their lives.

Miller earned an associate degree in her home state of North Carolina and also a degree from North Carolina Agriculture and Technical State University in Greensboro. She then taught high school horticulture and led her school’s FFA program in North Carolina for five years.

Miller says she loves that she is now in Colorado. “It’s wonderful!,” she says. She looks forward to building the horticulture program at A-West now that she has her own classroom and a dedicated outdoor area where students can learn to grow plants and to learn other landscape skills. | CG

—Becky Garber-Godi launched the ALCC Landscape Career Pathways program and continues to help connect students and teachers with learning and career opportunities in the green industry Miller started FFA leadership program at Arvada West.