Founding New Roots Alums Help Grow TC3's New Farm to Bistro Program

I was invited to attend TC3’s press conference for their new Farm to Bistro project by President Carl Haynes during a chance conversation about this exciting new program  – how could I say no?  It was freezing in the expansive space that will house the Coltivare culinary center and restaurant, but I was shivering from excitement, not the cold! 

The Farm to Bistro program will give students hands-on experience in every aspect of the food production system, as the college will operate its own working organic farm to supply fresh fruits and vegetables to Coltivare, the college’s planned culinary center in downtown Ithaca.  If you’d like to know more, here’s the link:

https://www.tc3.edu/catalog/ap_farm_to_bistro.asp

TC3’s Farm to Bistro program is exactly, perfectly the right college program for students whose passions are ignited by our Farm to School culinary and agriculture program at New Roots.  And in fact, it appears that several New Roots alums will be among the program’s founders!

Here’s a link to the article in the Ithaca Journal, which quotes TC3 student Jane Whiting at length:

http://www.ithacajournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/201402121624/NEWS01/302120068

  

Jane is a New Roots founder, Class of 2013.  Accepted to Cornell University’s ILR School, Jane has chosen Farm to Bistro as her path.  I’m not at all surprised – Jane is a visionary, entrepreneurial thinker who cares passionately about sustainability and justice and is ready roll up her sleeves to make good things happen.  This program is a perfect opportunity for an ambitious student like Jane -- and I’m sure the relationship will be mutually beneficial.

TC3’s new farm manager Todd McLane has a long history with New Roots, too.  Todd designed the very first Farm to School excursions for New Roots students as Farm Manager for West Haven Farm, as well as professional development for our staff.  It really takes me down memory lane to look at these phones of our faculty touring the farm with Todd in the summer of 2009!  Todd is the perfect combination of farmer and educator.  In my pre-New Roots days I spent many a Saturday morning helping Todd at the West Haven Farm stand at the Ithaca Farmer’s Market.  He’s a great guy and the perfect choice for this program in so many ways, in my humble estimation.  

Jane’s not the only New Roots graduate to be lured away from other colleges by this initiative:  my son, Aidan Hodges Class of 2013, is choosing to pursue a career in organic farming rather than attend SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry.

I am so excited that Aidan has an opportunity to pursue his passion for organic agriculture right here at home, where his good work will contribute to the quality of life of his family, friends, and neighbors.  Here are two photos of Aidan at the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York’s conference last month, one with veteran New York State farmer Elizabeth Henderson who has lead the fight for justice for farmworkers (and farmers!) and another with keynote speaker Dr. Gary Nabhan after a workshop on how organic farmers are getting ahead of the curve on climate change.   I’m one proud mamma J   This innovative new program will provide invaluable educational opportunities for the area’s youth who, like Jane and Aidan, aspire to support the development of a thriving regional food system, a rapidly-growing sector of our economy. 

TC3 President Carl Haynes’s vision and leadership is such an abiding source of inspiration for me.  Did you know that President Haynes is a founding faculty member at TC3, joining the staff in 1969 just a year after it opened?  After so many years of committed service to the college and community, President Haynes remains full of enthusiasm and energy for the good work of making our region’s community college a catalyst for projects that support our region’s youth, our economy, our quality of life – our community.  That shared vision is at the heart of all that we do at New Roots, too.  I am grateful for the many ways that President Carl Haynes continues to blaze trails, creating opportunities like this one for our youth to become the innovators, entrepreneurs, and leaders that will create a more sustainable and just life for all in our region.  Thank you, President Haynes!

Newts Action Team Creates Red Cross International Humanitarian Law Training for Youth Symposium

 This Monday morning, the lobby of the Clinton House was a minefield.  By day’s end, it was an international courtroom.

Throughout the day, American Red Cross reps and New Roots student trainers worked side-by-side to prepare the New Roots team to compete in the 2nd annual International Humanitarian Law (IHL) Youth Symposium in Washington, D.C. scheduled for July 2014.

Last June, New Roots students prepared an interactive skit about prisoners of war that won them the opportunity to be one of the first Action Teams in the nation, one of only six to win a trip to Washington D.C. for the first National IHL Youth Symposium.  Their skit was later adopted by the American Red Cross as a learning tool for its International Training Handbook.   

 This Fall, Jessica Lane, Regional Youth Services Manager, contacted me with a letter of support for our charter renewal.  In her letter, Ms. Lane reflects on the contributions and impressions our students made to last year’s symposium, saying, “I wanted to let you know what a great contribution New Roots Charter School students have made to the IHL Action Campaign program. . . .  The students we worked with were thoughtful, mature, conscientious, and creative. . .  their Action Campaign has been integrated into the national IHL Action Campaign program.  A portion of their Action Campaign, concerning the rights of prisoners of war, will be used to teach students throughout the nation.  Congratulations!”

This year, New Roots Spanish students are working with International Humanitarian Law Chapter Liaison Jonathon Cummings, a junior at Ithaca College, to develop bilingual action campaigns about child soldiers and international justice for this year's competition.  Under the tutelage of New Roots Spanish teacher Maria Gimma, students Hali VanValkenburg, Soren Mortensen, Rosemary Gloss and Alex Bontzalakes attended a weekend-long training in the fall of 2013.  These students were leaders in Monday’s training, replicating what they learned in a “training of trainers” session.  And they sure seemed to be having a lot of fun doing it!  

Once again I am deeply impressed but not surprised by the tremendous capacity that New Roots students have for teamwork, creativity, problem-solving, and leadership, among other essential “real world” skills.  Lead on, Newts!

Ezra Davis Class of '13 Named to Deans List at Worcester Polytechnic Institute

I am one proud principal!  Evidence of our graduates' successes at meeting the challenges of college and life head-on, anecdotal or otherwise, keep rolling in.

January 29, 2014

Dear Ezra,

Congratulations on being named to Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s Dean’s List for the A and B terms of the 2013-14 academic year.  You should take pride in knowing that you were engaged in extremely rigorous classes and project work and you rose to the challenge and performed at the highest level.  We are happy to celebrate your exceptional work in this small way and I certainly hope you will find some time to celebrate this wonderful achievement (before you get back to work on your C term classes).

My experience in teaching has convinced me that a very few students with a positive attitude can improve and enrich a class for every student.  Please continue to be a positive influence on those around you.  This is a great accomplishment!

Sincerely,

Arthur C. Heinricher

Dean of Undergraduate Studies

Ezra has spoken publicly about his experiences as a founding student at New Roots Charter School twice this Fall, once at our public hearing and once as a guest on the radio program "Teen Roots" on WRPI 91.5.  He modestly attributes his success with WPI's challenging project-based curriculum to the preparation he received at New Roots Charter School.  We think he's just brilliant.

Stroll down memory lane with me for a moment and enjoy these photos of Ezra and his father Paul with the amazing Newt puppet created by mom Catherine for the Ithaca Fest Parade in 2013!

The New Roots Newt leads the way!
Ithaca Festival Parade 2013













Irene Case with Ezra and Dad Paul Davis pose with the amazing New Roots Newt puppet made by Ezra's family.

"Newts" at Cornell's North American Computational Linguistics Olympics!

This is just one tiny glimpse of how New Roots teachers and staff “seize the day” to engage students with the many rich opportunities that our community has to offer.  My challenge as a new blogger will be staying on top of everything that’s happening and getting out the good word!!

Just for fun, a daring group of New Roots students ("Newts") competed in the North American Computational Linguistics Olympics last week thanks to Maria Gimma, Spanish and videography teacher.

Held at Cornell, NACLO is a contest for students in grades 6-12 in which contestants compete by solving interesting and challenging puzzles in linguistics and computational linguistics.  Requiring no previous knowledge of linguistics or computing, these puzzles can be solved by analytic reasoning alone, and serve to introduce students to this exciting field.

This experience certainly did engage New Roots participants Antonio Triana, Ray Vanek-Johnson, Soren Mortensen and Kai Haskins.  As Antonio said, "This experience opened up my eyes to the possibilities of investigating more about linguistics.  It was a fun experience for me and I felt very challenged."

Ray Vanek-Johnson added, "While very challenging and hard for a new participant, this competition was still fun and quite interesting.  For instance, I got to learn a bit more about the language of the Maori indigenous people of New Zealand.  I also learned about the script in which one of the Indonesian languages is written.  I never knew anything about their alphabet before.  This is why overall, I would say that this competition was challenging and even if I did not place, I still won because I learned a lot."

What I really loved about the participants' comments is that they combined words like "challenge" and "hard" and even "ROUGH!" with words like "fun!"

Maria Gimma was as enthusiastic as the students, but for a slightly different reason.  "One of the reasons I like teaching is because of these WOW moments that my students experience," she said.  This was definitely one of them:  the twinkle in their eye and the excitement in their voices as they discussed how they tackled their challenges made my day."

Ms. Gimma, it made MY day that you went above and beyond to give our students a taste of the exciting applications of natural-language processing in the 21st century, broadening their horizons and teaching them a thrill of meeting a new challenge head on.  I am grateful for the inspiration!