Houston Link to Learning has two summer students this year helping out with the community garden.
“Houston Link to Learning is really pleased to have two summer students this year, Ben Williams and Emily Anderson. Ben is a returning student from last year and Emily is new. Both are studying to be teachers which fits perfectly as we are a learning organization,” said Marian Ells, manager for the Houston Link to Learning.
Williams, 22, will be returning to Thompson Rivers University in the fall for Bachelor in Arts and a Major in History with prospects of teaching and Anderson, 19 will be returning to University of Northern BC for an English/History Major with a Bachelor in Arts with teaching being the end goal.
Both the summer students will be working with all of Houston Link to Learning’s summer programs this year including the community garden and the farmers market. The majority of their work at the moment is in the garden to get that started.
“Houston Link to Learning would not be able to do all it does in the summer without the summer students as they are essential to the running of the community garden,” said Ells.
The organization has been receiving funding from Canada Summer jobs for student positions for many years now. This year, they received funds for two students for 12 weeks which was an increase from last year where they received funding for two students for just eight weeks.
In total, the students actually work 16 weeks after Houston Link to Learning subsidizes the remaining funds for wages.
“We were pleased with the increase in funding,” she said.
This year, while most of the beds are allocated in the community garden, of the 40 beds still has a couple of beds available for those who are yet to register.
So far this year, the students and the staff have been working hard to clean up the garden and plant, said Ells. The team is now just hoping for some better weather this summer to do some programming at the garden.
Priyanka Ketkar
Multimedia journalist
@PriyankaKetkar
priyanka.ketkar@ldnews.net
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