For the contract titled Enterprise for Equity the student will develop an Edible Landscaping business plan through Thursday evening meetings and completing homework assignments assigned by the Enterprise for Equity program for 8 credits. The student will supplement their business plan using peer-reviewed research and will present their literature reviews with weekly reports for 8 upper division credits. The upper division credits will be reviewed and granted by Steve Scheurelle. Mentors within the Enterprise for Equity program will operate as field supervisors. This contract will operate within the SOS: ComAlt class. The student will attend the applicable morning portions of the Tuesday SOS class meetings as they pertain to the student’s personal project. The student can expect to read various peer-reviewed articles and sections from: Sustainable Management of Water Resources by Kevin Parris; The Vertical Farm by Dr. Dickson Despommier; Urban Soils, Applications and Practices by Phillip J. Craul; Soil Carbon Dynamics by Kutsch, Bahn, and Heinmeyer; Pesticides in the soil by Saltzman Yaron; Soil Survey of Thurston County, Washington by the USDA; The Permaculture Handbook by Peter Bane; Tree-Crop Interactions, A Physiological Approach by Ong and Huxley, and other general landscaping books. These books will help the student take a deeper look at urban landscapes.
The Enterprise for Equity (E4E) class is a not-for profit Thurston county based microlender which runs multiple business focused programs throughout the year. Their Business Planning Program is a 10 week program serving low income community members. The student can expect to learn about marketing, operations, and financing. The E4E class will not assign texts, but will assign weekly tasks.
The student will document their weekly updates on the wordpress website. These updates include E4E assignments, E4E meeting recaps, field trips, weekly recaps, the weekly 2-3 page literature reviews, and misc.