Grow Dat and Taylor Center, learning together
At the Grow Dat Youth Farm in New Orleans City Park, members of a Tulane class in social innovation and social entrepreneurship head back to the Grow Dat headquarters after working in the fields of vegetables. (Photos by Rick Olivier)
New Orleans native Yasmin Davis has participated in the local nonprofit Grow Dat Youth Farm since she was in 11th grade. Now a Tulane University junior, she is part of a new community partnership between Grow Dat and the Phyllis M. Taylor Center for Social Innovation and Design Thinking.
As a part-time crew leader at Grow Dat, Davis and her colleagues there are working closely with a Taylor Center class in Social Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship, and she is excited about the partnership.
“Working directly with Grow Dat crew leaders allows SISE students to actively witness and practice various lessons they have encountered in the classroom,” Davis says.
Through the new Community Innovator"s Circle pilot partnership, Grow Dat staff members offer service-learning placements for 55 undergraduate students and guest lecture in SISE courses.
The youth farm operates on a community-based model, in which crew leaders and assistant crew leaders teach young people agricultural skills and sustainable food practices. This semester the Grow Dat leaders are practicing these lessons with SISE students when they come to Grow Dat"s facilities in New Orleans City Park once a week, helping them gain confidence as they prepare for the new spring cohort of 40 youth.
Grow Dat members also join the SISE classroom six times during the semester to expand upon the field lessons that SISE students have learned.
“This partnership allows Grow Dat to act as a "community professor" for SISE students while they volunteer under the leadership of Grow Dat staff members,” says Rebecca Otten, the Taylor Center"s assistant director of student programming and co-teacher of the SISE course.
It also means Tulane students are approaching Grow Dat as learners rather than service providers, which can be a new experience for some students, Otten says. She and other leaders in the partnership hope that cultivating deep and mutually beneficial relationships with community organizations will enhance the student learning experience at Tulane.
Hannah Dean is a junior, majoring in Latin American studies and political science at Tulane University.
Tulane University junior Yasmin Davis, who works part-time as a crew leader at Grow Dat Youth Farm, instructs students from a Tulane class about the work of the nonprofit farm, whose mission is “to nurture a diverse group of young leaders through the meaningful work of growing food.”
