This speech was given by Stacy Friedman, ILLP Program Manager on the occasion of the retirement of Dr. Jolie Mayer-Smith, co-founder and former Director of the Intergenerational Landed Learning Project, June 2015. The speech tells the inspiring story of the Intergenerational Landed Learning Project, it’s founders, and the fight to save the UBC Farm.
We don’t often take the time to account for the entirety of an individual’s life work. It’s not something that is easily done as each person in a community holds one piece of the story of that individual, so in order to see the full picture, we must bring the whole community together. I have been looking forward to this celebration for the opportunity to hear from the community who hold the pieces of the story of my remarkable, and regularly over-committed boss, Jolie. I also have really looked forward to being able to share with all of you, some snapshots to illustrate who Jolie has been to me.
In 2005 I was a grad student in CUST and a volunteer at the UBC Farm, and while I got my doses of fresh air and soil, I recognized these two professors from my faculty, Jolie and Linda, out in the garden all the time, bringing supplies, watering the plants, and working in the garden. My curiosity was definitely piqued. Education professors with their hands in the soil? This was something new to me.
As I found out more about the Intergenerational Landed Learning Project it became clear that it was the embodiment of my evolving pedagogical philosophy: it was community-based, experiential, intergenerational, intercultural, integrated, real-world learning. What was more, it provided opportunities for urban youth and elders to build strong, healthy, and sustainable communities, and for education to actually transform the way we interact with one another and live our lives. It quickly became clear that working with the Landed Learning Project would be the greatest single learning experience of my life.
Jolie is an incredible professor, but one who never sat at the top of the ivory tower. Despite her great responsibilities and achievements, she always kept always her feet firmly planted on the ground. She is as comfortable in a doctoral defense as she is up to the top of her gumboots in manure. She would do whatever it takes to ensure healthy growth…of a carrot, an idea, a dissertation, a child, or a young educator. This was lucky for me, because in 2005 when I began working for the Landed Learning Project, clearly in over my head, I knew Jolie always had my back. Of course I had no idea what Jolie and Linda did behind the scenes to make the project work, but when I came to her anxious that we did not have enough volunteers to run the project, Jolie happily stepped in as a Farm Friend. And Jolie, as you might imagine, was an excellent Farm Friend.
Jolie could get the most squeamish grade-5 student to feel delight for the feel of a worm in her hand and the toughest grade 7 to be mesmerized by the transformation of a flower to a pollinated fruit. I was an art educator, but within months, I had deeper understanding of science concepts, inquiry, and engagement.
In 2006 when Jolie taught science methods and I taught art methods for the same education cohort, she suggested a collaboration. Our cohort experienced truly integrated curriculum as they translated concepts like the water cycle, the nitrogen cycle, and the life cycle of plants into comic strips, puppet shows, and sculptures. Later, the teacher candidates created their own integrated lesson plans, which they piloted in the garden with Landed Learning children. Jolie instigated these kinds of relevant learning experiences, and worked behind the scenes to make them successful.
Jolie also always responded to inquiries from educators and students interested in the Landed Learning Project. She would take time to share her ideas, listen to theirs, and give them a personal tour of the UBC Farm. She offered pro-D workshops to teachers, supporting them to bring their students into the garden to learn. Any student or staff who came to her in crisis could expect open ears, an open mind, and open arms. I also consider myself very lucky to have had a boss who was so receptive to feedback and so willing to grow. Her staff, students, and volunteers know Jolie as a real person with a kind heart and a huge amount of integrity.
It is one thing to collaborate with another faculty, inspire dozens of community volunteers to action, write a budget and bunch of grant applications, manage a staff, develop curriculum and bring children out to learn about food at a student-run Farm year after year while assuming the full-time responsibilities of a professor. It is a whole other matter altogether to put your job on the line to ensure that that said Farm has a future because you believe in the value of land as a space for learning.
In 2008 with UBC envisioning the development and construction that we see, hear, and smell every day in 2014, the 59 acres of land encompassing the UBC Farm were known to UBC developers only as “Future Housing Reserve”. The Children’s Learning Garden, which hosted the Landed Learning Project, filled only about a quarter acre of the Farm space, but the entirety of the Farm created a richness for learning and growing that were beyond measure and irreplaceable. Twelve acres of cultivated land allowed the children, as well as thousands of UBC students and community members, to engage with food production on a scale that is rare to see in a city. A couple of acres of hedgerows allowed for flowers that served as bee forage for the bees that then pollinate fruit crops, captivating and inspiring Landed Learning children, often transforming their relationship with bees from one of terror, to one of awe and curiosity. The several acres of forested land provided habitat for predatory birds like owls and eagles, to balance the populations of rodents, like mice and moles, who compete for our garden vegetables. The forest also allowed students the opportunity to learn about indigenous plants and the history of the unceded Musqueam territory on which we are so lucky to live, and of which we have a responsibility to be stewards. All of this land… forest, gardens, fields, and hedgerows… or at least a large portion of it, was to be razed to the ground and to be replaced with condominiums.
It was during this time that a small group of students and the rare faculty member, joined together to protect this educational gem. Jolie was one of the few. Speaking publicly at a Metro Vancouver Board meeting about the groundbreaking learning programs at the UBC Farm, Jolie inspired the Board to vote unanimously to call on UBC to protect the Farm. This was a powerful step in engaging the community in the efforts to preserve one of its greatest resources: land for learning.
Today the Centre for Sustainable Food Systems at the UBC Farm connects thousands of urban folks from Vancouver and around the world with the land through innovative practices in sustainable food production. It may seem like an inevitable reality, but I will never forget that this space was not always part of UBC’s vision. It was fought for by many passionate and tireless advocates, whose vision and effort made the Farm an integral component of UBC’s strategic plan. Those who spoke out, even when the position was counter to the official UBC position, were my greatest teachers…through their example.
Jolie’s work has inspired me and transformed my life. But it has impacted more people than just me. Over the past 5 years, Jolie served as a co-investigator for the Think&EatGreen@School Project in the Faculty of Land and Food Systems which has engaged hundreds of UBC students and facilitated dozens of concrete projects that enable students, teachers, and policy makers in Vancouver to influence how their food is produced and where it comes from. Over the past 12 years, thousands of elementary children and over 350 volunteers ranging in age from 18 to 86 have learned to care for the land that produces our food by growing, cooking, and eating food together in the Landed Learning Project. At least 20 volunteers who got their start in Landed Learning have gone on to start their own garden education projects in Vancouver, across BC and Canada, and abroad. These projects touch the lives of thousands of people. Now the fruits of Jolie’s labor have taken seed, and the seeds have produced their own fruit.
It’s a good time to retire. The work is not done, but it will live on and our community will be a kinder, cleaner, healthier place for it.
Jolie, we will miss your boundless energy and contagious joy.
No one here believes for a minute that retirement will find you sitting idly and I look forward to hearing of your adventures, and perhaps one day to see you back at the UBC Farm as a Farm Friend.
Thank you, Jolie.