Agriculture for the Soul

Leland Ag Instructor Reconnects a Delta Community to Fertile Soil

By Heather Craig

Kevion Young’s journey through Leland Career and Technical Center’s (LCTC’s) gardens and greenhouses is a soulful experience. He touches each plant as he explains what the students grow in the fall and winter months, and it’s clear both students and plants respond to his inspired approach to growth.

“Most of us take for granted how big of an influence ag is to culture,” Young says. “It’s what we see, breathe, hear, smell, eat and wear. It is at the core of how we operate with tools of the world around us.”

Young, a Delta native, spent his early life around agriculture, beginning with the lessons he gleaned at home from his Grandma Lela and her stories about his great-grandmother MaKu (or Rosie).

In his childhood home, Young helped raise animals and plants and enjoyed animal companions. His fascination with nature and agriculture led him to formally study agriculture in college, abroad in Asia and continually in his daily life as a yogi and healer with a global clientele.

Despite managing his own business and conducting international research, Young returned to his Delta roots as a way of rejoining the ecosystem that created him.

“My connection to my ancestors and my personal discoveries in biological sciences and health care ultimately influenced my decision to teach what I know and to continue learning more with my students,” Young said.

After deciding to teach, Young participated in New Teacher Induction, a program designed by the Mississippi

State University Research and Curriculum Unit and offered through the Mississippi Department of Education to transition professionals and field experts into hands-on teaching in career and technical education centers across the state.

At LCTC, Young now teaches Diversified Agriculture as a four-part course that includes Concepts of Agriscience, Plants, Environmental Science and Agricultural Mechanization. He also partnered with local organizations such as FoodCorps, Greenville Community Health — PIER, Delta Health Alliance and other employers for work-based learning opportunities. Young’s classroom activities range from creating popular agricultural products such as essential oils to working in greenhouses and gardening to welding.

Young described his hopes for the Delta in one word: cultivation. He explained how everything that happens in nature — preparing ground, seed germination, photosynthesis, growth and nourishment — is mirrored in our daily lives as people and a culture.

“It’s a humbling experience to witness so much of what’s unknown about the world around us, especially considering this area is known for its agricultural history; yet many of the people in these communities are mentally disconnected due to the inhumane treatment and racial traumas of their ancestors in this area,” Young said.

He hopes the natural products his students are coaxing from the fertile soil of the Leland area will reconnect the locals to the land that has sustained them.

He further explains his concept of cultivation in the lesson he hopes his students take away from his class: “It’s all about living in alignment with the environment — both internally and ex- ternally — and knowing how to center ourselves in the balance of it to achieve a truly healthy, well-rounded version of success,” Young said.

The COVID-19 pandemic provided an opportunity for Young’s classes to experience their interconnectedness as members of the Leland community when the students began donating sweet potatoes, greens, peas, bok choy and other produce to individuals in the community.

What began as an outreach to those unable to access groceries during the pandemic grew into an ongoing service project that has provided 5,000 pounds of food to residents of Leland and the surrounding area. A partnership with FoodCorps and the Leland School District’s CTE agriculture feeder school program established community gardens in Leland, Hollandale and Washington County, enabling multiple communities to benefit from the gardens.

“[Young] has brought a new vision to the Diversified Agriculture program,” LCTC Director Kermit McAdory said. “[His industry partnerships] enhance and promote students, parents and local businesses in the development of community gardens. These gardens will provide students training on how agriculture is vital in sustaining vegetables for the community as well as the job opportunities in this field,” he said.

Along with the new vision Young has brought to LCTC and the Leland area, he also serves as an agricultural mentor for his students.

Sophomore Lorenzo Hollins said, “Mr. Young is smart; he’s really smart about agriculture and life. He also really cares. He is a good mentor who cares not only about what we learn in Diversified Agriculture, but also about who we are as people. I would tell anyone to take his class.”

“I understand their experiences on a social-emotional level,” Young said. “We are all on the same team and the same side of living and learning together but with different steps to take.

“I respect their individuality as a piece of the whole person they are becoming, which gives me a personal understanding of each student,” he said.