Students Learning From the Ground Up

NVCC Beautification Is a Teaching Tool

Hey kids, Nancy Chamberlain called out. Get those weeds. "Stop standing."

Dutifully, about 15 students at the Annandale campus of Northern Virginia Community College bent down one day late last month and started picking up invading plants in front of the school's main building.

They plucked and pulled, questioning whether they were grabbing something planted intentionally. "Look," one student said, pointing to a plant he had yanked from the ground. "It looks like a hat."

This was the garden they had built. They were responsible for maintaining, watering and weeding it.

In a muddy patch where students used to throw cigarette butts, a rock garden was built for water runoff and trees and flowers were planted.

Students at NVCC are largely in charge of the landscaping on the 42-acre campus. Three years ago, students created a butterfly garden, which has become a memorial for faculty and students. Now, students build gardens all over the campus where dirt, rocks and mud fields used to exist.

Their goal is to beautify the college and to learn about plants, ecology and landscape management. They're also learning a bit about themselves.

"Before, I wouldn't even look down," said Harrison Smyth, 20, of Chantilly, observing a garden he helped plant. "Now, I'm like, 'It's me. I planted this garden.' "

For Chamberlain, an associate professor of recreation and parks, this was a teacher's moment.

"You wouldn't believe the number of kids out here who hadn't planted a plant," she said, watching students spread fresh soil around the butterfly garden. "This is their playground."

Alex Rivera, 19, of Lorton and Hao Hoang, 40, of Springfield hauled a bag of fresh soil to a garden on a hill. They dug in with their bare hands, grabbed soil and spread it.

This was a part of their introductory class on recreation.

"We love it," Hoang said. "Just to be outdoors, for our environment. It makes the school look much nicer. Plus, it gives us the experience. We learn to grow things. That's the main thing."

Rivera echoed his sentiment. "This is fun," he said.

The project started with a simple garden to teach students how to grow and manage plants. It spread throughout the campus. Now, 22 classes are involved.

Their signature project is the Butterfly Memorial Garden, a small patch with plants to attract and breed butterflies, including monarchs and painted ladies. In the center, a copper water fountain with "goose poop," as Chamberlain described it, is designed to attract butterflies.

It's free to visit, unlike the new butterfly exhibit at the Smithsonian's American Museum of Natural History in the District. The garden is filled with perennials, all native Virginia plants, except for a donated tree. There are persimmons, a weepy white pine, a pear tree and an apple tree. There are also butterfly and ladybug houses.

"The purpose is to provide food, shelter, water" for the winged creatures, Chamberlain said.

Peter Vandernat, 25, of Vienna is using the gardening experience to teach at-risk teenagers in Herndon about the outdoors. The garden, he said, is "here for future generations to enjoy. It's not chaotic."

He said planting a garden is a better activity than playing video games, something he's trying to teach the teenagers.

"I want them to be outdoors," Vandernat said.

The students have planted three gardens, with the butterfly garden designated a National Wildlife Federation Schoolyard Habitat site.

"The kids want to do this," Chamberlain said.