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Seay leads GGC microfarm community service efforts
Brandon Seay, ’18, left, explains to a student volunteer what work needs to be done on the GGC microfarm during the 2017 Gwinnett Great Days of Service event.
Upper Left: Brandon Seay describes gardening tasks to a student volunteer during a Gwinnett Great Days of Service work day in the GGC microfarm. Above: A bumble bee moves on to its next flower in the research orchard. Upper right: GGC students, faculty and staff volunteers pause for a group photo on a microfarm work day. Lower right: Student volunteers work in the microfarm.
Seay leads GGCmicrofarm
community service efforts
For Brandon Seay, ’18, an extra credit assignment transformed his college experience. Exploring environmental and sustainability topics for an English class, he encountered GGC’s community garden, a project created to involve students in growing food for local food banks. After attending the garden’s 2013 groundbreaking ceremony, Seay signed up as a volunteer.
In the years since, Seay has been a driving force in growing the 400-square- foot garden into a multi-faceted microfarm program encompassing two sites totaling about 30,000 square feet. One site includes a research orchard.
The microfarm also enjoys community support. Campus dining vendors donate coffee grounds for soil enrichment, Home Depot donates a variety of supplies, Sosebee Auto Supply donated a garden tiller and the restaurant Local Republic donated a hoop greenhouse system.
Today, the microfarm is so busy that its activities are coordinated by a team of student assistants employed by the Office of Student Involvement. Seay is the team coach and lead activity coordinator.
On any given day, one might find Seay guiding student volunteers in the garden, giving members of a class or student organization a tour or working with students and faculty conducting pollination research.
Seay also took a leadership role in the microfarm’s expansion and initial planning for future collaborations with local community organizations.
The microfarm’s broad community engagement complements Seay’s big-picture perspectives. His personal interests, which include genealogy and local history, had already nurtured his appreciation for societal interconnections. His work with the microfarm helped reinforce it, as did other college experiences.
In 2017, Seay was on a GGC team that conducted a survey of local resident and stakeholder thoughts about the City of Lawrenceville’s College Corridor project, which includes new parks as well as a more direct traffic
microfarm
route between GGC and downtown. The work drew praise from city officials.
“More sustainable use of environmental resources is better for a community’s members,” he said. “Research is critical for finding the best possible solutions for complex environmental problems, but you can’t separate human connections from the research. Historical context, culture, competing priorities – it’s all connected.”
Seay’s coursework and activities influenced his career aspirations. He changed his major from biology to environmental science with a social science concentration and a biology minor.
“I feel pulled toward program management,” said Seay, who is considering graduate school and career options including natural and cultural resources management, field research and surveying, education and community outreach, conservation/preservation planning, sustainability programming and environmental law.
Seay cited his mentor, Dr. Paul Grant, assistant professor of political science, and a long list of other faculty, for their accessibility to students.
“They help guide you to get the most out of your college experience and enrich your strengths,” he said.
Seay is a member of the campus Sustainability Committee, the Honors Program, the National Society for Leadership and Success and Beta Beta Beta National Biological Honor Society. He served as president of the Environmental Club. He also is a member of the Georgia Wildlife Federation, Centerville History Group and Gwinnett Historical Society.
Seay has been honored by Student Affairs’ Registered Organizations Awards and Recognition program with the Grizzly Legacy Award, Most Outstanding Grizzly and the Humanitarian Award, which recognizes his service to the GGC and Gwinnett County communities.
“From day one, Brandon’s leadership made the microfarm a campus space that unites students, faculty, staff and alumni as a supportive community engaged in service, teaching and research,” Grant said. “His contributions will serve as an enduring example to current and future students of the possibilities for service and leadership at GGC.”
The GGC microfarm at a glance
Recent Awards: Gwinnett County Fair Crop Competition • 2017: First place: hot peppers; second place: sunflowers; third place: beans • 2016: Second place: tomatoes and eggplant
Produce donated: more than 1,100 pounds for Lawrenceville Cooperative Ministry, 2017
Campus compost collected: more than 3,000 pounds, 2017
Warm-season plants: beans, cantaloupe, cucumber, eggplant, okra, peppers, squash, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, watermelon
Cool-season plants: cabbage, carrots, collards, kale, lettuce, onions, radishes
Research orchard trees and plants: apples, blackberries, blueberries, plum, wildflowers
