ILC – Kitchen Stories, Political Gardens

Student Info

Name: Nora Hantula
Term: Summer 2018
Credits: 12
Title: Kitchen Stories, Political Gardens

Contact Info

Contract mode: In-program ILC
Sponsor name: Sarah Williams

Internship Info (if applicable):

Internship hours/wk: 10
Internship credits: 4
Academic credits: 8

Field Supervisor

Field supervisor: Heather Rudich
Title: Farm manager
Organization: GRuB

Subcontractor

Name:
Title:
Organization:

Program Description

Narrative:

Kitchen Stories: Seen through Cultural Gardens is designed to explore the practical application of community agriculture and analyze its significance within the academic field of food studies. The student will be interning at GRuB farm and working with high school youth to grow, care for, and harvest food. In addition, the student will be writing a final thesis based on research that began last quarter about meaning and materialism of kitchen objects. The thesis is intended to introduce the reader to the historically political and cultural significance of gardens. The student will be focusing on the impact of community gardens in Thurston County and will be interviewing gardeners about the significance that place (such as gardens and kitchens) has for them. The outcome of the final paper is to inspire community organizers to take a direction in their planning that acknowledges these food-centric relationships and to seek to provide informed political spaces based on this research.

Learning objective	Activity	Deliverable
To learn how to work with high school youth in alternative education programs.	I will intern at GRuB for ten hours every week. I will lead youth in farm chores and act as part of a support system for them on the farm.	Weekly blog posts.
To develop a senior capstone that focuses on the meaning of gardening and community, particularly in reflection of gardeners’ memory of their family histories and kitchen origins	I will interview gardeners throughout community gardens in Thurston County and use these interviews as data for the final paper. I will read Thurston County Community Garden Assessment 2014 to explore past research that interviewed garden organizers as subjects. I will use notes and research from texts I read in Spring 2018, as well as texts read in past Evergreen academic programs. These include: Biographical Objects by Janet Hoskins, The Cooking Gene by Michael Twitty, America’s Kitchens by Carlisle and Nasardinov, and More Than Just Food by Garret Broad. I will write a senior thesis as my final capstone project.	Weekly blog posts. Revisions and drafts of my thesis

Evaluation of Work

Narrative evaluation from sponsor
Narrative self-evaluation from student
The student will complete all assignments as described on the syllabus, including weekly documentation on the ePortfolio under the Project pages of the SOS: Food and Ag program website. Required components of the ePortfolio, as templated, include: approved ILC description; weekly post; log of activities and hours; map; image gallery, and bibliography. NOTE: Do not change the theme of the ePortfolio as many special features as well as off-campus student access can be compromised with non-app friendly themes. No exceptions please. Because the student’s in-program ILC project requires–or would benefit from–a field supervisor (required for internships), subcontractor (required for upper division science credit), or mentor, the student should provide the faculty with a field supervisor, subcontractor, or mentor’s descriptive assessment of in-program ILC work completed with their guidance, expertise, or supervision by Thursday noon of week 10. This assessment should be discussed between the student and the field supervisor, subcontractor, or mentor, then provided on professional letterhead as an attached .doc file, including current contact information, directly to the appropriate faculty sponsor through email (williasa@evergreen.edu or muehleisen@evergreen.edu ). The student should complete comprehensive mid-quarter and final narrative self-evaluations and submit them to faculty at mid-quarter and prior to their final, end of quarter student-faculty conference. For the final presentation each student will post and, when possible, present in class on Tuesday of week 10, a ten-minute PowerPoint (Keynote, Google Slides) presentation of 10-15 slides with text that demonstrates the highlights of the student’s in-program ILC Project. Note: As a “best of the student’s ePortfolio” this presentation should not be about the creation of new material, but rather the final presentation should assemble and tell the story of existing material regarding the student’s in-program ILC project. All students must update their Academic Statement yearly. Graduating seniors are encouraged to work on revisions to their final Academic Statement with faculty prior to the final evaluation conference.