Jessica Choi
Jessica Choi, AmeriCorps VISTA Youth Education
What I Do At GGI:
I will be working on and assisting in a variety of activities that will help empower educators and children of schools, daycares, and other youth-related programs with the resources and tools that they need to build and expand educational gardens. These tasks include increasing access of garden-based curricula to new garden teachers by creating online training videos and developing an online resource library. I will also be helping to figure out ways to provide more support for underutilized youth gardens, especially during the summer. Other activities involve researching funding and ways to integrate garden based job training at high schools. You can also find me on Saturdays at Bell Garden during the growing season!
Background:
I grew up in Baltimore County, Maryland and attended University of Maryland, College Park, where I obtained a Bachelors of Science degree in Architecture. While at the University of Maryland, I was able to explore a lot of DC and its metropolitan neighborhoods, and studied abroad in Costa Rica to learn about sustainable agriculture. Somewhere in between all those experiences, I became fascinated with exploring, designing, and integrating the building, landscape, and urban community. Upon graduation, I returned closer to home, moving into a beautiful Baltimore City neighborhood called Lauraville. During this time, I had a summer internship at Sandtown Habitat for Humanity, helping to build row homes, including Baltimore City’s first LEED Platinum home! (Meanwhile, the big, old Victorian house I was living in was constantly, but excitingly undergoing some kind of renovation project.) Later, I worked at a local cafe, serving home-made paninis and Zeke’s coffee to many of my Lauraville neighbors, and I interned at a small eco-architecture firm named TerraLogos.
Presently:
Now at Gateway Greening, I am so excited to be working for an organization that builds and sustains the community through urban gardens. I look forward to learning as much as I can about St. Louis and sustainable agriculture. And hopefully, my boyfriend and I can make use of our small apartment soon with our own little container garden too.
Recent Photos
