Roots Rising, Pittsfield, MA
This summer I worked as the Education Intern for Roots Rising, a youth development program for high schoolers in Pittsfield, Mass. The program hires twelve high schoolers each summer, spring, and fall to work on farms. The program is motivated by the philosophy that being asked to do meaningful work is a pathway towards self-empowerment and community development. Teenagers need farms and farms need teenagers—we provided over 100 hours of labor throughout the summer to various farms (as well as food banks and community gardens) in the Pittsfield area. Built into the program, alongside meaningful work, is Real Talk, a method of communication that allows crew members to be honest with each other and provide insights to each other as people. Self-knowledge is power, and to receive Real Talk—valuable information about how others see us—is a gift.
Although Roots Rising takes high schoolers onto farms, it is not an agricultural training program. The farm is a site through which work habits are taught and community ties are built. Some students will go on to be hired by the farms we work on, but many leave ready to do whatever it is they are passionate about. As we care for the earth we also learn to care for each other, and it is this power of community building (alongside self-knowledge) that students take with them. The crew members learn about the food system and help contribute to the Pittsfield local food economy and, as they do so, they learn important job skills and are prepared to join the work force after their nurturing time at Roots Rising.
My main role this summer was to serve as a mentor. I worked alongside the crew the entire summer—in the fields weeding, at the Berkshire Dream Center unloading food, in the community garden harvesting beans. I got to know each of the twelve students well, mostly during our conversations weeding, mulching, or harvesting, sharing stories about our lives as our hands kept busy. The program identifies teens in need of the job—sometimes this need is financial, but many times it is a different type of need—many are in need of stability, of being asked to do something meaningful, to feel needed, to feel a community connection and care. Pittsfield can be a challenging place to grow up, and many view their home city with disdain. The program builds up a stronger sense of self amongst the teenagers as they make connections to the land and gain a sense of pride for where they are from. I was able to bring my joy, confidence, and farming knowledge to the program and lead by example—I love sticking my hands in the dirt and working hard, and I was able to share this passion and energy to the teenagers, who were at times wary of the work, the heat, or the rain. But they brought their own kind of energy, and we all worked together to direct it into making the type of community we wanted to be a part of.
Some of my official roles included leading lesson plans, assigning chores for the day, and leading lunch crew. All staff rotated through leading the preparation of lunch, taking crew members onto different parts of the farms according to what work needed to be done, and facilitating workshops, which happened every Monday and Wednesday in the hour between lunch and afternoon field work. I taught two this summer, one on identity and social change, the other on farmworker justice. During the identity workshop, which happened in the second week of the program, I asked students to reflect on what elements of their identity they felt were indispensable—to take these elements away would fundamentally change who they were. They partnered with other people who shared these identities, and in reflecting about themselves they were also able to build deeper connections with the people they were just beginning to know. After this, I asked them to reflect on the issues they cared about deeply—racism, gun control, education, domestic violence, poverty and class injustice, incarceration, worker’s rights. Finding other people who also cared about these issues, they discussed the ways in which these issues manifested in Pittsfield, and what they might do to address them. This hour-long conversation was a jumping off point for the rest of the summer—they got to know each other in deeper ways, and hopefully were able to see the program itself as an avenue of change, as part of their empowerment as change makers.
Roots Rising is a truly remarkable program. Even though we had only spent 24 days together, it became hard to imagine what life would be like waking up in the morning and not joining them. Jamie and Jess (the program’s co-directors and co-founders) have put everything into this program; every element is so thoroughly considered that it really does train youth to be future leaders and community caretakers. On the final day Jamie said to the staff, “we changed some lives this summer,” and her statement hit me in a way that only a very true one could. By taking away these student’s cell phones, asking them to do hard work, and showing our love and care for them every day, we created a visible change in these youth. Queenstar was louder, Mark more serious, Avery surer of herself. Pittsfield is in desperate need of Roots Rising, and I am excited about its potential to grow more in this city, as well as programs like this one in other cities across America. In one program, so many positive things are able to grow: the local food system becomes stronger, isolation due to technology is addressed, community ties are built, diet-related illnesses are examined, youth are empowered.
I never want to stop working for Roots Rising. Every single one of my days was full of meaning, something I do not take for granted. I knew walking into the program that I wanted to be an art teacher; I am interested in empowering youth with their own ability to be creators, and to impart a social justice education through the arts. I believe that if youth think of themselves as makers, they are empowered to create change in their society—everything we need is within us, we just have to believe in our ability to create it. Roots Rising taught me another model for empowerment and led me on a path toward discovering all the things I want to learn before I enter the art classroom. To become the best art teacher I can be, I don’t need to go to art school—I need more programs like Roots Rising. And this is what I hope to do for the next eight or ten years: learn from practitioners who have at the center of their models youth and community development, and hopefully return to Roots Rising each summer to continue to learn from Jamie and Jess. And perhaps even start a program like this one (with a little bit more art) in the new cities I make my home.
Thank you to the ’68 Center for Career Exploration and the Kraft Family for making this internship possible. I am grateful for being chosen to represent Williams through this funding and that this summer was a possibility for me to pursue. Roots Rising changed my life and I am so thankful that I was given this opportunity to grow.
Megamenu Social