Chicago Botanic Garden Fall 2019

A Green Youth Farm graduate returns to her roots By chance, when she was in high school, Marina Garcia ended up with a job at the Green Youth Farm in Lake County, nestled in Waukegan’s Greenbelt Forest Preserve. At age 15, she didn’t expect to fall in love with plants and didn’t dream that 12 years later she would return to that same farm—this time, in a job as coor- dinator, working with teens to tend to- matoes, peppers, carrots, and other vegetables. Her work at the Youth Farm and the Garden “made me grow into a better person and really brought a self-aware- ness to what I was putting into my body and what organic produce is,” she said. “I didn’t know what kale or kohl- rabi was when I was starting out. It’s an exposure to good food, horticulture, and food politics and what exactly is going on in our food system.” Garcia, now 27, landed the job in Janu- ary. Previously, she had worked in vari- ous capacities for the Chicago Botanic Garden, including as an assistant horti- culturist for the Circle and Sensory Gardens. She is just one of several Windy City Harvest graduates who have gone on to work at the Garden. “My dream...has been to give back to youth what I gained while I was a stu- dent in the program,” Garcia said. “Now I am living that dream. I feel like I get paid to have fun, and who wouldn’t love a job surrounded by food and wonderful people?" Back when she was a freshman at Waukegan High School, she consid- ered applying for a job at Six Flags Great America in Gurnee. Her father wasn’t enthusiastic. After a youth group leader at her church mentioned a farm that o ered a working and learning opportunity, “I asked my dad if it would be OK to work there and he said yes, because I would learn instead of just working,” Garcia said. Garcia worked at Green Youth Farm in Lake County through high school and, like the plants she has grown to love, she ourished. She had planned to ma- jor in broadcast journalism at the College of Lake County until a friend from the Youth Farm suggested she take Horticulture 101 at the college. On the rst day of that class, the teach- er, once a Youth Farm volunteer, remembered Garcia. She changed her major to sustainable agriculture. Eliza Fournier, the Garden’s director of urban youth programs, believes “Mari- na can be a great role model for some- one for whatever career they want to choose. “She's shown this unwavering loyalty and love and commitment to the Chicago Botanic Garden and this eld in general,” said Fournier. “And she has taken advantage of every opportunity along the way, which are the qualities we want to instill in all the youth farm- ers, no matter what their passion is.” Learn more chicagobotanic.org/urbanagriculture Marina Garcia at the Green Youth Farm in Lake County in 2007 (above) and today (top). chicagobotanic.org 29