Category: Environmental Stewardship Center

Pumpkins: A Smashing Success

Posted on by Josephine Belsky

This past Friday, students and staff gathered on the quad to blow off some steam by smashing pumpkins and eating s’mores. With the help of Kalamazoo College’s Office of Student Activities and the Environmental Stewardship Center’s Composting Crew, cartloads of pumpkins were successfully smashed into smithereens!  

Huge load of chopped pumpkins in the compost pile
Pumpkins in buckets at the chopping station

Dozens of students, as well as some family of faculty members, came to throw, stomp, chop, and ultimately demolish a batch of pumpkins last week. Students cheered each other on as they chucked pumpkins at the ground, healthily venting the stress from the impended finals season. In between slamming pumpkins with shovels, students shared cozy cups of hot chocolate and gooey s’mores and chatted amidst the fitting tune of alternative rock band, Smashing Pumpkins.  

 The pumpkins were donated by students and community members, most of which were left over from Halloween decorations and fall harvests. Every year, millions of pounds of pumpkins end up in landfills where they contribute to the significant methane emissions of landfills, rather than successfully decomposing and returning nutrients to the soil. Rather than throwing out these festive vegetables, the Composting Crew collected them in the Grove and returned over a quarter of a ton of pumpkins back to the earth.  

Pumpkin drop-off site in the Grove

That’s right! After a significant amount of transporting and chopping and weighing, 517 pounds of pumpkins were composted just from this year’s Smashing Pumpkins event, not including other pumpkins received in community bucket drop-offs. The compost pile has doubled in size and has been steaming away as it rapidly breaks down the load of pumpkins. The nutrient-dense soil will be given to the Hoop House and the Jolly Garden once it’s cured in the spring to feed next year’s gardens!  We hope to see you all at the Smashing Pumpkins event next fall! 

Environmental Stewardship Center

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Summer Fellowships 2025: Sustainable Development Academy at the University of Potsdam

Posted on by Mia Pierce

This blog post is part of the ESC Summer Fellowship 2025 series. These fellowships provided funding for research projects related to the environment, sustainability and/or the Climate Action Plan. This post was written by Ava King, one the fellows of this past summer cycle.

Hello! My name is Ava King, and I am a rising sophomore at K looking to study biology, as well as a mixture of philosophy and German. This summer I was granted the opportunity to spend two weeks at the University of Potsdam, participating in the Sustainable Development Academy. This academy brought together undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate students from over ten countries in the context of global sustainability and mindsets surrounding these topics. Throughout this program we learned from experts in various fields, listening to lectures and participating in field trips to tour significant areas around Potsdam and Berlin. The history of Potsdam was enticing to learn, as we were able to study at Neue Palais, a former palace now utilized as a university.

This opportunity has been enlightening in more ways than I could have expected. The friends I made through this program allowed me to glimpse perspectives I have never understood before, from varying cultural norms to driving on the left side of the road. I truly believe and hope these people will stay in my life for the long run, which is the greatest gift I could have been granted from this experience. The beauty of Potsdam and Berlin was immense, and I hope to return one day for graduate work or other opportunities spoken of at this conference.

Another experience I would like to speak of in regards to this experience may seem generic, which is growing a deeper sense of self. I have always valued my time alone, pondering ideas or simply taking a social break as I am an introvert. There is something so solidifying in traveling abroad for the first time alone (minus Canada, living in Michigan I don’t count it). There’s a certain openness with the world and with yourself you must come by to succeed in this type of adventure, and this method of visualization is one I hope to always hold onto. The anxiety of new items awakens something in me. My host parents for example, only spoke German (with a limited English vocabulary I found later in the weeks). This was terrifying, but I can now say that my German improved significantly during my time with them, and I am lucky to have another set of grandparents in my life.


I would like to thank the German department, Center for International Programs, and Environmental Stewardship Center at Kalamazoo College for making this opportunity possible, as well as the SDA and International Programs Center at the University of Potsdam for hosting this conference. I would also like to send a special thank you to Professor Sederberg, as the kind and significant amount of support provided permitted this experience to flow smoothly. I was able to stay with the original host parents of Professor Sederberg from when she first arrived in Germany. This was a gift I am so grateful to receive as this couple has changed my life, and so has Professor Sederberg. Thank you to all who have lent their support to me over the past weeks and months preparing for this trip, and to those at U.P. who have made that campus feel as a second home.

Environmental Stewardship Center

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Summer Fellowships 2025: A Radiant Summer of Dirt, Bugs, and Sweat!

Posted on by Mia Pierce

This blog post is part of the ESC Summer Fellowship 2025 series. These fellowships provided funding for research projects related to the environment, sustainability and/or the Climate Action Plan. This post was written by Zoe Wilson, one the fellows of this past summer cycle.

Hello everyone! My name is Zoe Wilson and I am here to tell you about my summer in the wonderful company of the Hoop House (HH). I was granted a fellowship with the Environmental Stewardship Center to work at the Hoop House and complete my SIP about community gardening. My days began early, slowly waking up during the joyride on my bike to the HH, quickly followed by a duel with the bugs that eagerly greet me when I enter the garden. My work often involved rehoming weeds to the ever-inviting compost piles, planting new life in the form of vegetable seeds, and living out my interior decorator dreams as I organized the garden and shed in a way that maximized floor space and highlighted my color scheme of dirt brown and lush green. The summer got off to a rocky start with the sweltering heat that triggered my survival instincts as the amount of sweat that erupted from my skin led me to believe I was under water. Nevertheless, as sure as the dirt under my fingernails, I too was ever-present and hard to get rid of.

Alongside my gardening work, I was working on my SIP, titled “Sowing sovereignty: Decolonial approaches to community gardening and environmental justice.” Through scholarly review, personal reflections, and practical application, I explored how gardens can be powerful spaces for healing, care, resistance, and liberation within communities. I drew from works in decolonial theory, Indigenous studies, feminist theory, and environmental justice scholarship to analyze how land-based practices resist settler colonial paradigms and create space for community self-determination. Being immersed in the garden allowed to observe firsthand how theoretical frameworks are embodied in physical labor and community interactions. Working in this space, I learned accountability, knowing that not just people but the plants were relying on me, as well as the importance of forming a relationship to the land and acknowledging nature, not as a resource, but as the basis of all life. The simple act of sharing the bounty of the Hoop House with my friends and community taught me of the subtle yet vital ways people take care of one another and how a cucumber is more than a cucumber; it is a symbol of life, resilience, and love.

Zoe Wilson holding a cucumber grown in the Hoop House

The garden taught me that resistance does not have to be loud. Sometimes, it looks like growing food where concrete once stood or eating a tomato that you held as a seed. Sometimes, it looks like showing up, again and again, to tend to something fragile.

This fellowship was more than just a summer job or reserach opportunity—it was a reminder that change can start small, in a seed, in a patch of earth, in community.

I want to thank everyone who helped me this summer: my friends, my family, my work-family—Lee, Greta, Sara, and Chloe, the Larry Bell ’80 Environmental Stewardship Center, and of course, the land that allowed me to build this wonderful relationship and create this beautiful life.

Environmental Stewardship Center

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Summer Fellowships 2025: Using Tread Management to Combat Against Trail Erosion

Posted on by Mia Pierce

This blog post is part of the ESC Summer Fellowship 2025 series. These fellowships provided funding for research projects related to the environment, sustainability and/or the Climate Action Plan. This post was written by Madi Magda, one the fellows of this past summer cycle.

Hey everyone, I’m Madi Magda! Since June, I have been working at the Lillian Anderson Arboretum, completing a variety of different tasks, including general trail maintenance, determining a potential reroute of Not So Magnificent Pines, replacing and putting in steps along the trails, and much more. Everything I did throughout the summer at the Arboretum only increased my interest in working in the ecology field post-graduation.

I had a lot of fun working with the rest of the Arb Crew this summer. One of my favorite shifts was with Tara and Tilly, where we were assigned to move bridge materials. It was a hilarious time moving these materials, but it was also a very rewarding shift at the end of the day because we managed to complete it despite facing issues along the way. One of my favorite parts of this job was telling people my job was to hug trees all day and see the pretty plants and animals. This was a great experience that I recommend to everyone, even if they are not in the biology field. It is a rewarding job that also allows you to be outside and work in nature.

Not only did I learn a lot and have a lot of fun with my fellow Arb Crew, but I also learned a lot about trail management that I had not known previously. This was very beneficial for me, as I am a senior and my Senior Integrated Project consists of using tread management to combat against trail erosion. There are a lot of different aspects of trails that I had not realized were used for erosion reasons or for structural reasons, and it allowed me to do my own research on this topic as well as teach people about it when they asked me.

When telling people what I do at the Arb and why I do it, seeing their reactions was rewarding on its own. They may not have understood what I do or why, but they knew that I was passionate about my job and that was what mattered to me.

Environmental Stewardship Center

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Homecoming at the Hoop House! 

Posted on by Mia Pierce

This past Friday, October 3rd, we celebrated Kalamazoo College’s Homecoming at the Hoop House! We welcomed staff, faculty, students, and alums, coming together to share cookies, cider, and of course, fresh produce from the Hoop House! 

Connection in the Garden 

The October weather was perfect for a gathering outside our campus’s Hoop House. Friends and families came to visit and enjoy fresh cookies, conversation, and memories. Students had the chance to converse with their peers and pick their way through the fall harvest, staff caught up with old friends over cider under the fall leaves, and alums got a chance to read through the Hoop House highlights from the past few years. It was an afternoon of laughter and new connections.

A Legacy Passed Down

As Kalamazoo was buzzing with alums returning to town for Homecoming, the Hoop House welcomed back some familiar faces, joining together caretakers of the Hoop House from years past and present. The idea of having an on-campus hoop house was first voiced in 2016, and that idea culminated in an official proposal in 2017 through a Senior Integrated Project, a dream started by K students who would graduate before they saw it built. The Hoop House itself came to life from the hands of many students on September 21st of 2018, and the Hoop House Grand Opening was held in October of the same year. This Homecoming, alums and current students alike celebrated the determination and effort that multiple years of students put into this community space as well as thank the staff and faculty that funded and supported the process.  

See You Next Year! 

We are so grateful to everyone that came to see how the Hoop House and all its various projects are doing and to everyone that came to say hello to us at the Environmental Stewardship Center! We hope you enjoyed some mingling in the beautiful fall weather, and we can’t wait to see all of you again next year. 

Environmental Stewardship Center

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Summer Fellowships 2025: Summer Shepherding With Tending Tilth

Posted on by Mia Pierce

This blog post is part of the ESC Summer Fellowship 2025 series. These fellowships provided funding for research projects related to the environment, sustainability and/or the Climate Action Plan. This post was written by Grace Lounds, one the fellows of this past summer cycle.

For the past three summers now, Tending Tilth has taken on interns from K College to aid in sustainable sheep grazing. My name is Grace Lounds, and I am one of these interns! The other two this summer are Lauren Stallman and Gwen Crowder Smith, and together we have worked under Lauren Burns, getting gritty with plenty of hands-on farm work. This opportunity will likely be available to K College students in future years, so I wanted to share some of the valuable lessons I’ve learned (and the fun I’ve had) for anyone curious about sustainability, sheep, or maybe thinking about following in my footsteps!

About Tending Tilth and Sustainable Grazing

Tending Tilth is a contract-based sheep grazing business. This means that different clients hire us to bring sheep to their properties as an alternative to conventional machine mowing. Founded and operated by Lauren Burns, Tending Tilth functions year-round under her direction, with support from us summer interns.


The work we do has numerous conservational benefits for the ecosystems we graze. Sheep eat invasive species such as spotted knapweed, (as well as other unwanted plants like poison ivy), promoting native plant communities and biodiversity. Grazing also mechanically changes the landscapes we visit. When sheep graze, they trample down plants, stimulating plant growth, pressing dead plants into the soil, and pushing seedheads into the ground. This simultaneously presses their own manure into the soil, fertilizing the soil without harmful chemicals. Their urine also acts as a very nutrient-rich water resource for plants and microorganisms. Through these combined actions, (nutrient cycling, soil aeration, and organic matter incorporation), grazing helps build topsoil, promotes biodiversity, and strengthens root systems. Strong plant growth sequesters carbon and prevents drought.
Currently, Tending Tilth is working with GVSU Geology Department ‘s Professor Tara Kneeshaw to study soil health, proving that sheep grazing helps to sequester carbon. This is a study that will take 3 years, but preliminary findings already suggest that Tending Tilth’s practices enhance ecosystem health and contribute to climate change mitigation.

A Day on the Farm

Tending Tilth has about 80 sheep. Right now our sheep are split into two groups, the working group and the lambs, who are chaperoned by their grandmas and a couple male sheep. The lambs stay at the farm while the working group rotates from site to site, meaning that every day looks a bit different for us depending on where we are. The first thing we do when we get to a new site is to survey the land and make a plan for fencing. We use electric fences that we put up at each new location. Most of my time is spent putting up fences and taking them down later. Other chores include filling water tanks and setting up shade sales. Free time is spent making sure the sheep are happy and healthy. The male sheep can be quite cuddly, so I love giving them head scratches and patting their chubby bellies. I’ve also aided in hoof trimmings, fly bite treatment, giving shots, and deworming sheep.


The sheep are by far the most exciting part of the job. They’ve really stolen my heart, so much so that I am now seriously considering going to a large animal vet school after I graduate. My favorites are King Louis who’s part of the working group. He has a big personality and always runs right up to me and scratches his head on me. Gus is also a cutie. He’s only a few months old and he looks like a baby deer. He’s the nicest lamb from this season and likes to follow the adult sheep around. He used to be pretty shy but he’s really warmed up over the summer.


I could go on and on about all the sheep and their personalities, and all of the fun things I’ve done over the summer like installing a monitoring well or doing soil samples, but I think that’s all I’ll share to keep this short and sweet! For more information about Tending Tilth you can visit tendingtilth.com, and for more information on the science behind conservational grazing stay posted for the SIP’s that Gwen and Lauren will be completing and presenting at Arcus in the spring!

Environmental Stewardship Center

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Welcome and Welcome Back for Fall 2025!

Posted on by Mia Pierce

From everyone here at the Environmental Stewardship Center, welcome and welcome back to Kalamazoo College for the fall 2025 trimester! In honor of the new term (and our new first years), we’ve put together a list of what the ESC has to offer, events you can expect from the ESC this term, and resources to get involved!

The Environmental Stewardship Center

The Larry J. Bell ’80 Environmental Stewardship Center (ESC) houses all things sustainability-related on the Kalamazoo College campus. Here, you can find information about the various green spaces on and off campus, the Environmental Studies concentration, the Hoop House, the Composting program, and the Lillian Anderson Arboretum. Additionally, a large part of what we do here at the ESC involves the Climate Action Plan, a framework of policies and guidance on how to create a greener, carbon-neutral campus.

Sustainability is one of the core values of the ESC, and we work to ensure that that value is interwoven throughout campus life for students, faculty, and staff alike. If that sounds like you, come find our interns and director in Dewing Commons, located on the first floor of the Dewing building, or email us at environmentalstewardship@kzoo.edu! You can also find us every Wednesday of even weeks during common time (11:00-11:45AM) for our Sustainability Chats! We hope to see you there!

Upcoming events to look out for: We have two FYE events coming up where we will be giving a tour of all four on-campus green spaces. These tours are Wednesday 9/1 and Tuesday 9/14, both at 4:30pm.

The Lillian Anderson Arboretum

The Lillian Anderson Arboretum is our one off-campus green space, located roughly 5 miles from K’s campus. It is roughly 140 acres, contained marshes, pine forests, and meadows, all interconnected through miles of trail pathways. The arboretum is an integral component to living green here at K. Not only is it used by classes as a learning lab (like the Arboretum P.E. class running this fall), but the arboretum has also been the source of numerous SIPs throughout the years and is continuously maintained by our student Arb Crew. Additionally, it’s enjoyed by the public and students in their free time; in fact, the arboretum is open from dusk to dawn!

Upcoming events to look out for: There is a Trip to the Arb scheduled for Wednesday 10/8 from 4:10-6:15pm – transportation provided!

Composting

One of the major components of the Climate Action Plan is promoting zero-waste on our campus, and the most important way we do that is through our composting program! With the support of the ESC and Facilities Management, the composting program is run by students who are a part of the Compost Crew. These students help collect food waste from students, faculty, and staff with their green compost buckets stationed throughout campus – you’ve probably already seen one!  

You can find the composting program in the Grove, the wooded area located next to the Living Learning houses and the Dewaters residence hall. Feel free to stop by, pick up your free compost bucket, and help our campus strive towards being zero-waste!

Upcoming events to look out for: Smashing Pumpkins, a Halloween-themed event where students are encouraged to smash old, leftover pumpkins from the fall season (and the scraps are then composted!)  

Composting shed with bucket drop off and pick up signs

Hoop House

Through student initiative and faculty support, our campus is lucky enough to have our very own hoop house, a type of unheated greenhouse! Located behind the Fitness and Wellness Center, the Hoop House has been the source of SIPs, classroom activities, club events, and more! Here you can visit during open hours (every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 4:30-6:00pm) to learn more about growing fruits and vegetables, get your hands in the dirt, take some fresh produce home, or just to enjoy the company of other sustainability-minded students! 

Upcoming events to look out for: the annual Harvest Festival, where current students, faculty, and staff can mingle with alumni and community members to celebrate the Mother Corn grown at the Hoop House, enjoy some fresh food, and build bridges with the great K community!

A Year in Review

Posted on by Emerson Wesselhoff

As we wrap up 10th week here on campus, we’re taking a look back at some of the phenomenal events, programming, and notable moments from the Environmental Stewardship Center this year.

Climate Action Plan

This year, we worked incredibly hard to make our Climate Action Plan more effective and accessible for our greater campus community.

We launched the Climate Connection Series, a new opportunity for students, faculty, and staff to give ideas and feedback about our CAP goals. The Series reached over 50 campus community members and is helping shape our approach to orientation and more in the coming year. We also saw over 30 faculty and staff members participate in Global Climate and Justice Education Week, helping ensure that climate literacy is embedded in campus culture here at K.

We also made incredible progress on our CAP Goals during the 2024 Fiscal Year. This includes resource conservation like enforcing our helium policy, creating a more efficient and localized electric metering system, and increasing transparency around fossil fuel divestment. You can read more about that progress here!

Environmental Stewardship & Studies

It was also a fantastic year in our Environmental Stewardship Center, and in the Environmental Studies Department!

We welcomed a host of new Environmental Studies Concentrators this year! Many of those new faces showed up to our Sustainability Lunches, a new initiative that welcomes the campus community to discuss environmental issues and projects on campus while eating snacks and getting to know one another.

It was a delight to work with an incredible crew of Environmental Stewardship Interns. Taking on roles in the Hoop House, Arboretum, the Compost Crew, and the Climate Action Plan Committee, these students were invaluable to ensuring that Kalamazoo College had reliable and engaging environmental programming throughout the year. Their work included running the Arboretum and Composting PE classes, facilitating Harvest and Cultivation Ceremonies at the Hoop House, bringing back Groove Grove, leading first year students on green campus tours, and more!

Sustainability SIP Symposium

One of the definite highlights from the year was the 2025 Sustainability SIP Symposium. We heard from 13 passionate students who completed their Senior Integrated Projects in an environmental field. Over 100 students, faculty, staff, and community members packed the Arcus Center for an unforgettable evening filled with learning, connection, and environmental consciousness. Click here for a recap on the Symposium. You can also read about some of our senior’s work on food justice, coral reef restoration, and sustainable grazing methods!

Cheers to a great year!

Thank you all for another phenomenal year in the Environmental Stewardship Center and beyond. We are very proud of the work we’ve accomplished, and are already planning for ways to continue making sustainable changes in the coming years. None of these efforts could be possible without widespread campus support from our passionate students and dedicated faculty and staff. Thank you for all that you do! Stay tuned and subscribed for more updates in the fall, and have a safe and lovely summer!

ESC orientation fall '24

ECO Club Spotlight!

Posted on by Mia Pierce

Have an interest in environmental activism? Want to know more about environmental work here at Kalamazoo College on the student level? Then you’re in luck because we have the perfect organization to spotlight this week: ECO Club!  

What is ECO Club?

The Environmental Conservation Organization (ECO) Club is a group that aims to cultivate a more sustainable community on campus and bring awareness to environmental justice. Active since 2005, they host a variety of events, some community-based and some activism-based, as well as working closely with other organizations and departments to ensure that Kalamazoo College continues to strive to be a greener campus. From DIY tote bag decorating, Kahoot! games, and movie nights, to community reflections, tabling at climate rallies, and advocating for a divestment dashboard, ECO Club has done it all!

We’re highlighting ECO Club this week because we want to shout out the environmental activism that happens on our campus at the student level and hopefully encourage our student readers to get involved with an organization they might not have heard about. If you’re passionate about working towards a more sustainable campus, this could be the opportunity for you!

Who is a part of ECO Club?

ECO Club has over 200 members across Kalamazoo College’s student population, making it one of the biggest clubs on campus! In addition to members, ECO Club is run by board members who oversee the club and plan its events. The 2024-2025 board members include:

Noah Pyle, K’25

Major: Biology
Pronouns: He/him
Fun Fact: I do nature photography in my free time

Meghan London, K’26

Major: Anthropology and Sociology, Political Science
Pronouns: She/her
Fun Fact: I can name all fifty states and their capitals

Mia Pierce, K’26

Major: Biology
Pronouns: She/her
Fun Fact: I’ve been a vegetarian for 9 years now!

Josie Belsky, K’27

Major: Undeclared
Pronouns: She/her
Fun Fact: I love climbing rocks and hugging trees

What are some upcoming event

What are ECO Club’s recent projects?

ECO Club has recently collaborated with the Environmental Stewardship Center to collect EPS foam with the purpose of recycling it with the city of Kalamazoo on their quarterly collection days. EPS foam is not easily recycled, so this initiative is a great opportunity to help reduce landfill waste! ECO Club collects the foam every Friday during common time in front of Stetson Chapel, and then stores it until the next collection day. So if you have any EPS foam, especially after move-in day, please donate it!

If you were on the Quad Wednesday afternoon of Week 6, you would have seen a large group of students planting and painting flower pots. This was one of ECO Club’s community-based events, where students were able to pick out their own baby plant and then decorate a clay pot however they wanted! There was music, connection, and, of course, a desire to see a greener campus – if only from having a new plant in your dorm!

What are some upcoming events?

Want to get off-campus for a few hours before final exams start? Love the Kalamazoo Farmer’s Market? Then you’ll love to hear that ECO Club is hosting a group walk to the farmer’s market on Saturday, May 31st! This is a low commitment event meant to help students destress before finals season and enjoy the sun! Walk with ECO, stay for as long as you want, and connect with others who are passionate about environmentalism!

Additionally, ECO Club is hosting a Swap Meet following Week 10. On Saturday June 7th, students will be able to drop-off and take various items (think clothing, appliances, kitchenware, furniture, etc.) on the Quad for free! This event aims to reduce the amount of things going to the landfill following move-out by providing students with the opportunity to “swap” their unneeded items with someone else’s. If you’re trying to reduce clutter, looking for free furniture and appliances for a house next academic year, or just love to stay thrifty, this is the event for you!

Hoop House Spotlight!

Posted on by Emerson Wesselhoff

Spring is in full swing all around campus, and the perfect spot to enjoy the warmth and greenery is in the Hoop House! We’re taking a moment this week to highlight what’s growing and going on in the Hoop House this spring!

Visit the Hoop House!

Everyone is welcome at the Hoop House! Located behind the Fitness and Wellness Center, the Hoop House gardens are available to all of the campus community. Come drop in to open hours, which take place every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 4:30-6pm. You’re welcome to come in and work on gardening projects, harvest from fruits and veggies to take home with you, or just stop in to hang out! All the harvestable plants will be listed on the whiteboard, but here’s a list of what’s growing in the Hoop House!

  • End-of-cycle (so take them home soon!): kale, spinach, chives, and other greens
  • Ready to harvest: lemon balm, thyme
  • Growing stages: potatoes, radishes, squash, tomatoes, garlic, eggplant, snap peas
  • Growing in flats: bee and butterfly friendly flowers, corn
  • Other fun things: the peach tree is blossoming right now, and the fig tree grew a little leaf!

Meet the Crew

The Hoop House is up and running thanks to a phenomenal crew of students and staff who are passionate about green and growing spaces on campus! Hoop House Interns work with ESC Staff and Lee Arbogast to assist with the management of and care for the Hoop House gardens. During the Fall and Spring terms, they host regular open gardening hours for students, staff, and the greater Kalamazoo community and organize events using their own produce.

Hoop House Interns work with ESC Staff and Lee Arbogast to assist with the management of and care for the Hoop House gardens. During the Fall and Spring terms, they host regular open gardening hours for students, staff, and the greater Kalamazoo community and organize events using their own produce.

Hoop House Interns work with ESC Staff and Lee Arbogast to assist with the management of and care for the Hoop House gardens. During the Fall and Spring terms, they host regular open gardening hours for students, staff, and the greater Kalamazoo community and organize events using their own produce.

Zoe Wilson, K’26

Position: Hoop House Intern
Majors: Psychology and Critical Ethnic Studies
Pronouns: She/her
Fun Fact: I love to paint and write poetry!

Estelle Metz, K’27

Position: Hoop House Intern
Majors: Business and French
Pronouns: She/her
Fun Fact: I have four chickens!

Hayden Rubin, K’26

Position: Hoop House Intern
Majors: English and History
Pronouns: She/they
Fun Fact: I have my black lab named Baker here with me at K!

Amelie Sack, K’27

Position: Hoop House Intern
Majors: Anthropology and Sociology, Women and Gender Studies
Pronouns: They/she
Fun Fact: I have studied for four years as an opera singer!

The Hoop House is Hiring!

Do you want to get more involved with the Hoop House? Now you can! The Hoop House is hiring another intern for the Fall of 2025. To learn more about the position and how to apply, check out this link. The Handshake application is available here. We hope to see you in the Hoop House!