🌱Calling all Garden Educators!🌱
Update for Summer 2022
Dear Life Lab Camp Community,
We know this communication is long-awaited, and we thank you so much for your patience with us as we planned a return to in-person programming this summer. New visions and opportunities for summer programs at our special UCSC site have recently coalesced, so we can now share that we will not be offering open registration summer camps as in previous years. This means that we will not be offering Garden Sprouts, Wildlands & Watering Cans, OWLS or Eagles summer camps.
This season we will be piloting a new type of summer program for elementary school students from the Pajaro Valley. Since 2013 Life Lab has partnered with Pajaro Valley Unified School District (PVUSD) to increase access to garden-based learning opportunities for its 8,000 K-5 students. With a new, long-term commitment from PVUSD to expand and deepen this approach in all 16 of its elementary schools, we now have an unprecedented opportunity to weave foundational garden classroom experiences into public educational spaces.
In support of this collaborative effort, Life Lab’s summer programs this year will bring young students from Watsonville and Pajaro schools for immersive experiences that cultivate children’s love of learning, nourishing food, and nature in our special location at UC Santa Cruz. As you know, our Garden Classroom at UCSC is a welcoming and inspiring place. Having these joyful, nature-based experiences on a university campus also provides the opportunity for kids to develop a sense of belonging in a college setting. This can be very influential for their ability to see themselves in such spaces in the future, and we are excited to partner with PVUSD and UCSC to help build potential pathways for Pajaro Valley students.
Though our summer programs are changing, we look forward to continuing to be in community with you and your family as well! Our Garden Classroom and the whole UCSC Farm are open to the public from 8am to 6pm every day, and we hope you will visit often. We will continue to reach out to you with new opportunities to celebrate the garden and nature in community together, as well.
Life Lab would not have been able to pursue these opportunities for expanded access to garden-based learning without years of your support. We are grateful to you and our extended Santa Cruz community and look forward to keeping in touch.
Gardens of gratitude,
