At Olivewood Gardens and Learning Center, the missions statement is " to empower students and families from diverse backgrounds to be healthy and active citizens through organic gardening, environmental stewardship, and nutrition education." This mission statement is what Olivewood is founded on and something they strive to fulfill everyday. Whether it's hosting field trips for elementary students, to hosting a high school internship every Friday, or even establishing a well known cooking program for adults, Olivewood does it all.
My Photo Essay
A brief collage of photos to shed some light on a what a day might look like as a intern at Olivewood Gardens and Learning Center.
Interview with Cristina Juarez
My interview with my mentor, Cristina Juarez, really helped me understand on who she is as a person. In the interview she offered incredible advise and made me realize how lucky I was to work under a person so talented. Here is a transcribed version of the interview along with the audio. And below this is my internship project.
Aaron Romero and Paulina Guerrero Interview with Cristina Juarez
This interview took place on Friday, May 22nd, 2018 at 2:40 PM. We had originally planned to conduct this interview the following Monday, but we all decided that it would be better to get it done sooner so we’d have more time to work on our projects. This is sort of the Olivewood spirit, a lot of things during my internship happened spontaneously and made me have to learn how to react in the best way. This same spirit is also highlighted in the Interview when my mentor, Cristina Juarez, talked about her job at Olivewood Gardens. As we talked outside of the kitchen the evening sun lowered and shed a nice warm light over the garden. It was a great setting for an interview and a great interview in its entirety.
AR Romero (AM): Ok, um, test one two test one two, just like if im back here- okay i think- okay if you can just start off by listing your name and what you do here. CJ Juarez (CJ): My name is CJ Juarez and I am the coordinator of volunteers here and outreach, so I help to bring volunteers on board, and interns and help to distribute distribute responsibility amongst the team and to make sure that all the volunteers and interns have something to do and the work that they do here is meaningful and has a focus. AR: And how long have you been here? CJ: I've been here for about three years. AR: And Olive Garden- I mean. CJ: Hahaha, not the restaurant AR: Haha, I don't know why i said that, no but how did you hear about Olivewood and what got you involved. CJ: I actually heard of Olivewood because about 6 six years ago i took a gardening class, it was called gardening 101 and it was just two weekend, so it's different from the four month program we have right now. So i just came for the two weekends and I was very impressed with the place, it’s very beautiful, no matter where you are in San Diego, I think this place is a very special place. And after that, I sort of just dropped the ball and I remember sending an email wanting to volunteer but never got around to doing it. I was in college and working and on different projects, so I was living and working in Escondido at the time for another non-profit organization and was looking for a job in San Diego so I could move back here. Because Escondido was very far away from here and the commute was very long, I was driving everyday for an hour to get there, so I was just lucky that when I was looking for a job this position opened up and I applied and actually, the application process was really long. I had submitted my resume and didn't hear for like two months so i thought that I hadn't been selected. And then someone called me to schedule the first interview and then from there it was another month so it was like very very long, maybe a four or five month process, like the selection. So, by the time that they called for the - cause it was like a three or four step process, for the last one, I had decided that I was going to call to drop my application. It was just so frustrating because I had been wanting to leave Escondido and I was looking for another opportunity and I felt like this was holding me back. So, I was ready to call in and then someone called me and said “Hey, you’ve been selected for the last round of interviews” and I was like “Okay” I was really excited, obviously because I really wanted the job so yeah, that's how i… so throughout the selection process I had to do an interview with the kitchenistas. During one of the kitchenistas meeting, so it was like submitting your resume and cover letter, doing a phone interview, then doing two in person interviews, like one in person interview with someone, then another in person interview with two staff members and then coming for a presentation and for an interview with the board so it was a really long process and I remember when I got here for the presentation, all the kitchenistas were in the room and then board members and staff members, and it was like packed in the dining room. Then I had my little USB with the powerpoint I was going to do, and then they were like “We already took down the powerpoint, is it okay if you do it without the powerpoint?” and I’m like.. I just go like.. I was really surprised because everything that I was going to do was on the powerpoint, that’s what I had planned. And then she’s like “Oh and most of them speak like Spanish, but there are some people who speak English, could you do it in like two languages- can you do it in both Spanish and English?” and I’m like “Whaaat? What is this place?!” So it was like- and I just had to do it, I was like “Sure! I can do everything!” and I think that was- I think that really helped to show how flexible I am and how I will adapt to different situation because now you know that when you’re here you kind of have to jump into whatever is asked, and that’s the same for us, so you as an intern, you like get that experience but its because its like that for everyone. AR: Yeah so, you have history in non-profit organizations, before you were here, you were at another non profit you said, what got you into non profits? Like when you were in college was that something you had in your mind and like did you hear your major towards that? CJ: I mean, I have been a community organizer since college, so I’ve worked in the community for a long time but when I graduated, well before I graduated I was a research assistant. So I was mostly doing social research and when I graduated I continued to do research for a long time, but then it sort of hit me that like that the research, it's not really being applied in the community or the community members don't really find out what is being researched or they never get the results of the research they participate in. For example, like this food affects your weight or something, but they never like, I don't know. Or “You should eat more fruits and vegetables” They never got the results of those papers, so I thought that I wanted to work- because what I liked about research was working with people and interviewing them and going to their houses and stuff, so I thought it’d be a much more direct communication with them for something that I was really passionate about. So when my last research project ended, I started looking for different jobs in the nonprofit sector and that’s how I got the job in Escondido. And then this one, so I’ve only worked in two non-profits. Paulina Guerrero (PG): So why have you stuck with Olivewood Gardens, is there something about it that’s very special to you? Or what stands out about Olivewood Gardens? CJ: I think that the community here in National City is very special. San Diego is really big so it’s hard to find these- *At this time, a dead gopher was pulled out of its hole and held up* CJ: So I think this, that is why I like working here. Like anything can happen and also, I love working with the Kitchenistas, they are very loving. But I also love working with all sorts of people, like I like working with the kids, I like working with the Kitchenistas, I like working with the youth in the High School Internships and also the college students. So I like my position and I think that’s why I’ve stuck around, because I get to work with different populations and I’m doing something different everyday. Besides, working in the garden, like you’re never going to find a place like this to work on. Because the other job that I had was working in an office. It was like three people working in a space, it was in a room, it was in a house room with three other people there. So I think that it's been very special to get here in the morning and walk through the gardens and be able to breathe fresh air and work with amazing people who are passionate about what they do. AR: If you don’t mind me asking, what did you major in? CJ: I majored in Sociology. AR: Sociology? That’s what I wanted to do, I took a Sociology class at Southwestern last Spring and I really liked it? CJ: That’s really nice, who was your professor? AR: It was online, and it was Something, White- I forgot her name. But it was a really good class. I really enjoyed it CJ: I love it. I really love my career. AR: Also, another sort of personal question: What college did you go to? CJ: I went to Southwestern College right after highschool and then I transferred to San Diego State and then I went to study abroad in Chile for a year and then came back and graduated. PG: Wow that’s amazing. Do you recommend doing the two year- CJ: Yes PG: Yeah? Because Reyna says exactly the same thing. CJ: It’s amazing AR: At southwestern? The two year transfer? CJ: Yes, the transfer and also studying abroad. AR: How do you think that impacted, like, because a lot of people say that that’s really good and especially if you don't… like there’s a lot of students who don't really know what they want to go into and so they recommend that, but there’s other students who just jump straight into universities or something like that. What do you think, or how do you think your process was different than someone who went to the 4 year? CJ: Well, i’m also a migrant, so I had moved here when I was 11, in 11th grade, sorry, so it was 2 years before I graduated. But, I think it was, for me, it was really essential for me to go to community college because I had to like, learn the system before college was AR: Okay CJ: But I think it's actually great for everyone because even if you already know what you want to major and you’re really focused in what you want to do, you have to take general education courses, you have to take the GED’s, and then taking these classes in a four year, you’re college is really expensive, and you’re gonna be like, in debt, or your parents are gonna be in debt, so I don’t think it's worth the educational system in the U.S. Its really bad at support the students financially, so I think community colleges really give like an opportunity to not, I don't know how to say it, like to not be in debt when you graduate. AR: Yeah, not helping financially. CJ: Because if not like, I'm still paying some of the loans that I took out, so it needs to be like years, and people take like 20, 30 years like depending on what school you go, so transferring is a very good option especially if you are focused on what you want to do, uh you could already take those classes and transfer in one year and a half, like you don't even have to take 2 years to transfer, but it's a really good resource, and I think people “menosprecia” (disparage) AR: It’s cheaper? CJ: No, “menospreciar”, it's like when you don't take it seriously AR: Oh okay I get it CJ: Yeah it's like saying, “oh I want to go to a four year college” or whatever, but a community college actually, the classes, when you go to a four year college, and you take like all the one-on-one’s like are gonna be like 100 people, 80 people, 150 people, and its nothing like personalized, but the ones in a community college are gonna be like 40 people, 20 people, and it's a personalized learning experiences. AR: Yeah CJ: So, I think like I see a lot of pluses going into a community college and also just studying abroad because it gives you a different perspective from what you’ve learned, especially going to study abroad when you’re a junior or a senior and you've already like seen a lot of the classes that you majored in or a lot of the culture in the college, um if you study abroad, you go and take classes from other teachers who have a different school, a different perspective, it's really preaching to your career. Not only career, but also your personal life PG: Did anything stuck out to you that you learned in Chile or just by studying abroad in another place? CJ: Yeah, because you know how here you have to take like 2 years of GED’s and you take two years of your major classes? PG: Yeah CJ: Over there [Chile], students take 4 years of their major, so I was at the same level with seniors taking their classes, but I realized how much more they knew than I did because they had already taken 20 classes more than I did in my major so I was really grateful that I had taken the experience of taking different classes that people in the US never got the opportunity to do. AR: Before you came here to the US, were you interested or were you doing any community work? Did you transfer from Mexico? CJ: No not really, I started doing community work when I was at San Diego State through a student organization AR: Oh okay PG: In your eyes, what do you think Olivewood Garden is or what do you think it stands for? From your perspective. CJ: I see Olivewood Garden as being this place where things can be created and we have a lot of passionate people who really can put their energy and effort and time to making something happen. I think we are building a community that in the US can be very individual days and they tell you like to go and to do your stuff, but here we do things together and we always try to do things together as much as possible and get input from our program participants like the kitchenistas or the high schoolers like, what do you want in our programs like what do you want to see us do and I speak kind of as a facilitator of making their ideas happen. So, I think it's a really.. Like the work that we do here with the gardening and the eating, like the food and nutrition, its essential for the south bay because not a lot of people have access to these kinds of educations and its very ironic how a lot of the people that live here came from living in a small town and they bought the land when they were kids and their parents worked a lot and now there’s this association because the cities don't really provide this for the people, like these opportunities so this is like a really spot to put those practices back in mind and kind of like remember what you did as a kid that you wouldn't do otherwise. PG: Do you have any advice for high school or future jobs or future internships? AR: Anything that you see in us that were doing that you might either say, “you might see something like that” or any bad things or bad habits developing that you think we could change or do more of for our future? CJ: I think both of you are like so diligent and I really enjoy having that conversation at the beginning when I told you like you’re responsible for your time, you’re responsible for taking your lunch break, and taking that seriously and owning it and doing it, like I think it's very important to take care of yourself, but also, in more general, I think you’re doing awesome jobs, I always here from the staff members, “Oh, they’re so amazing!” and i'm like yeah, but i dont think its because you are from High Tech High or because or whatever, but I think it's because you were able to grasp the purpose of what we’re doing here and make it into your own like, for you like to facilitate the lesson plans like this and for you to be supporting the kitchen and knowing the recipes and everything, I think it makes a really big impact to own it and then being able to deliver it, because hopefully your internship wont stop here, but you’ll be passing on the word or spreading the word about everything that you learn here. In terms of your jobs in the future, I would recommend you to have a job, but not let it be your only passion in life. I think it's very important to compliment your job with other projects and other things that you do, because in a job, you're gonna change a couple of times in life and you still have the base of who you are as a person and if the job doesn't define you, then that's just one of the many things that you are as a person and it's very important to have that in mind to be able to have a balance in life, like if you want to have a family or if you want to travel, or if you want to hang out with friends and have time to hang out with friends, like saying “I have a nice work environment”, you know? Like it's just one small part of who you are and having like those other projects and passions, things that you do, it’s important to not be burnt out from the work even if it pays you. Your passion might have an unpaid job but it might fill your soul. PG: That’s good advice *Laughter* AR: Umm, do you want to talk about projects? PG: Oh yeah sure, we can. CJ: Yeah, what do you guys have in mind? AR: I have a lot of things in mind. PG: I feel like we’ve done so many little projects. AR: Yeah, I feel like we’ve done a lot in the, what is it, three weeks here. We’ve done many things, but I feel - and I don’t know about you PG, but I have a need that I just want to do something big and I want to do something to show Olivewood how much I appreciate it and how much its done for me. And so, I was thinking, and I was talking to Rebecca, and I told her this and she says that she agrees that she needs this- I have two ideas, this is the first one, to make sort of like a cork board stand that they could display the lesson plans and sort of like the meal plans. Sort of what we have along the window, something like a corkscrew thing. CJ: To use where? AR: To use in the kitchen. And in the outdoor kitchen. Or something else that I thought of was along the entrance, that fence right there CJ: The wooden fence? AR: Yeah the wooden fence, maybe- and I haven’t really worked out totally everything yet, but maybe redo the wall sort of, but like the same exact structure. Well, because what I want to do is to have everybody that works here to, you know how little kids, they, on bricks, when it’s still being made, they put their handprints and I wanted for everyone who works here to do the same thing because it sort of represents the kid in all of us. Because I feel that in order to work here, you have to have that child in you to have all this imagination and creativity to do crazy and good things. And we’re working with kids all the time and I feel that you have to keep that true to yourself and keep your core of being a kid. SO maybe doing something like that and maybe we can have the kids do that as well. CJ: Nice, I like that idea AR: Yeah, just right along that fence, something you see as you walk in. PG: SO I want to do something in the kitchen because that’s where I feel I’ve spent a lot of my time, during the field trips and I’ve noticed that a lot of the times the parents are interested. And I have a six year old brother and so I’ve seen the way nutrition plays, and even in sports, nutrition is a big part. I was talking to rebecca and she wanted me to do a sort of pamphlet or brochure or a book, something that the kids can talk home or give to the parents that can tell them about different replacements or different sugars depending on each recipe that we make. So for the granola recipe they can take home a specific way to replace the dair, the sugar or I can also give facs and then kind of give them like a rundown and just stuff so that Olivewood Gardens can go to the parents and we can get more outreach into the community. Other than just the little field trips. CJ: Will that look like individualized pamphlets for each lesson plan? PG: That’s what I was thinking, so that we can have them and when they leave we can hand them out to them. CJ: Well I don't know if you have enough time to develop that many you know? Because we have so many different lesson plans that… I don’t know how that would work. PG: Yeah, Rebecca said that I can just do the main ones CJ: Hmm, oh okay. Yeah, that’s cool. How are you doing with graphic design? And how do you do it? PG: I can use, I can probably do Canva, I can figure it out on there. CJ: Don’t they charge you to download it AR: It’s free to download. CJ: But how does it download? Because if it’s a pdf or a jpeg that you’re not able to modify AR: Yeah, it’s a PDF, but so what you’re able to do is, it saves, its like google drive where it save automatically and then you download it as a PDF and then that’s what saves into your computer and that’s what you're able to print out. But if you want to change it, you go into canva again, you make the changes and then you download it again. PG: Or I can also use Google Drive, but we do a lot of these for our exhibitions AR: Yeah, we make a lot of posters and stuff like this. CJ: That’s good. One project that I think that we still need to work on and I don't know if we will be able to create it. It’s a founders wall or like a donors wall. We don’t have that and we have these signs around the garden that we are trying to improve the way that we display gratitude to donors and funders. So you know how sometimes you’ll go to the library and you see a tree with these plates, or placards with the name of the donor or depending on how much money they give, they have a better spot in the tree or whatever. AR: A what? Like a shelf? PG: Like a plaque right? CJ: It’s like a donors wall, so sometimes, you actually reminded me of that because you were saying about how having these kids embed something into like cement or something. Or like ceramic. That could be like the base and then we could just have a name under that on a little golden plaque or something. I really like that idea, and we’ve been looking for a spot to have it so. AR: Yeah I think I could just take tomorrow or the rest of this week and by the end of this week I;; find a place for it, that’s what I’ll be doing CJ: Yeah place and also if you want to research different donor walls, and something obviously that's going to go with the environment of the garden and is going to fit into what we do. We don’t want something that is just like out of place. So something like that, I think will be nice. Like I said, I don’t know how soon we’ll be able to create it, but even like having the design and start having like a sample will be like would be a really cool project. And that would be like a huge footprint too. AR: Yeah, I would really want to do that. Cause that thing, maybe we can even get the founders down here and get their hand print. CJ: Do you know if you have any funding through your school to do your project? I don't think so right? AR: No, I don't think so. CJ: Do you have like laser printers and stuff like that? AR: Yeah we have resources like that, we have 3D printing, laser printing CJ: Yeah if you also want to work in this project together, i think that it's like a bigger project for more than one person, but your idea also, I think I just have to visualize it more. Maybe till it's something more concrete. AR: Maybe you can make like a draft PG: Yeah, I’ll make a draft CJ: Okay AR: Okay cool, PG: Alright CJ: Okay, so we’ll be continuing to like talk, when is the last day of your internship? AR: June 1st, so next Friday CJ: Next Friday?! Oh noooo! I thought it was like two weeks. Oh my god you guys AR: Yeah, it’s felt like nothing CJ: Oh you guys, you don’t know how time flies *Laughter* AR: Yeah so CJ: Yeah so keep me in touch and maybe AR: That excites me a lot, like I really want to do that CJ: Okay send me some drafts too. And then send me whatever you have online to my email and then we can talk about it on Monday and then you have that week to work on it. PG and AR: Okay CJ: Cool thank you!
Internship Project
My internship project was one that I was really interested in. It was to design an aquaponic tank and bed. I asked one of my mentors what projects were feasible to get done during my time of internship. He told me that the aquaponic system was always something they wanted to get running. I took this close to heart because I spent my first semester studying fish and learning how to care for them. This was a perfect project to expand on my knowledge and combine it with something my internship did. What I contributed to building the system was: research on fish to use, how the system would work, and an educational poster to help kids understand what the system does. Below is a slideshow of the the process and the final product.