Category: Living Learning Labs

The 2025 Hoop House Harvest Festival!

Posted on by Mia Pierce

This past Tuesday, October 28th, the Hoop House hosted its fifth annual Harvest Festival in collaboration with the Religion, Spanish, and Critical Ethnic Studies departments, the Environmental Stewardship Center, and the Center for Civic Engagement to celebrate and give offerings to Our Mother Corn, or Tatéi Niwetsika. Brought to Kalamazoo College from Mexico and stewarded by K’s very own Dr. Cyndy García-Weyandt, Our Mother Corn teaches us about resistance and tending to ancestral relations through the land. It shows us the need coexistence and solidarity when fostering reciprocal relationships.

Every year, the Harvest Festival aims to offer gratitude to Our Mother Corn for all the learning, nourishment, and beauty that it has provided us this past growing season. It’s a chance for students to honor the kinship that we have with something outside of ourselves: the land. One student, Amelie Sack (K’27), was happy to see a celebration of the successful cultivation and stewardship of the land on K’s very own campus. She emphasized that not only does the Harvest Festival bring people together and foster community, but “it’s also just really fun!”

To kick off the festival, a blessing circle led by Elder Rosalía Lemus and Felipa Rivera from the Wixárika community Y+rata was held. Students, staff, alumni, and community members came together to give gratitude to Our Mother Corn, light a candle, and make an offering to the corn. Meghan London (K’26) shared that one aspect she loved about the festival was that it gives students “the space to engage with Indigenous practices, which is something we talk a lot about, but don’t have a lot of opportunity to do.”

Once everyone had made their offering, guests were invited to enjoy performances by Danza Folklorico, “Corazón y alma,” from El Concilio. Then, Dr. García-Weyandt offered a personal reading of a poem about her relationship with Our Mother Corn. After that, guests were free to mingle, share food together, make crafts, and purchase jewelry and beadwork made by the Wixárika community. Recent alum Ava Loncharte (K’25) spoke about the how important this event was because “there’s not a lot of things like this on-campus that combine gardening with spiritualism” and that it “reminds us of the reciprocal relationships we have with the land.” 

Thank you so much to everyone who joined us on Tuesday, and we hope to see you next year! 

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!

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!

Winter in the Living Learning Labs

Posted on by Emerson Wesselhoff

Lillian Anderson Arboretum

Winter can be one of the most beautiful times to visit the Arboretum! With pine trees blanketed in snow and the stillness of frozen ponds, you’ll get to see all kinds of winter nature and wildlife. It’s the perfect season for a chilly hike with a warm drink – you can walk, hike, and run all year long in the Arb!

This winter, you might run into some of our ongoing projects and programs! A carbon sequestration survey is currently taking place at the Arb. Part of a project that occurs every 5 years, this survey will help us better understand how trees utilize atmospheric carbon, and how the Arb functions as a carbon sink. You might also wander past folks with maps and compasses – don’t worry, they’re not lost! They’re just participating in a map and compass workshop put on by the Outdoor Leadership Training Center.

Be sure to layer up! In the colder weather, consider bringing an extra warm layer, hat/gloves, and shoes with good traction. All trails are open and operating as normal regardless of condition, unless otherwise noted. The Arb is open for normal hours, from dawn to dusk.

The Grove

The weather might be cold, but the compost piles are still warm and working hard! Thanks to the efforts of the Compost Crew, composting is available all winter long. Drop by the Grove (located behind the Living Learning Houses between Monroe and Lovell St) to pick up a compost bucket. Simply fill it up, drop it off, and pick up an empty one again!

The Hoop House

The Hoop House is still operational, even in the winter! We’re busy prepping flats and preparing for spring. Stay tuned for more info on a few open hours in late February and early March, and then get excited for full open hours to resume every MWF in April, 4:30-6pm!

Jolly Gardens & Dow Wildflower Garden

The Jolly Gardens and Dow Wildflower Gardens are getting through the winter season! While we might not be able to see the plants while walking by, this cold spell is helping prepare them for the next growing season. The leftover stems and plant matter we can see through the snow makes a great habitat for overwintering pollinators and other helpful insects!