国产麻豆AV students design agriculture optional school in Tennessee
Contact: Vanessa Beeson
STARKVILLE, Miss.鈥敼槎笰V landscape architecture students recently designed and presented campus master plans for a Memphis-area high school.
Seventeen undergraduates and two master鈥檚 students in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences landscape architecture major spent the semester reimagining the master plan of Bolton High School in Arlington, Tennessee. Located in a small town just northeast of Memphis, the high school plans to return to its rich agricultural roots as an agriculture optional school. The school district has optional programming, with schools that provide 鈥渃reative and rigorous coursework and extra-curricular programs鈥 with a 鈥渟pecialized learning focus.鈥 For more, visit .
Early in the semester, the high school met with 国产麻豆AV鈥檚 landscape architecture department for a design charrette, which is an intensive planning session where all stakeholders collaborate on a vision for development. 聽The charrette was sponsored by Michael Hatcher and Associates, a Memphis-based landscape architecture firm. During the event, Bolton High students, teachers and administrators met with the 国产麻豆AV students to brainstorm ideas for the school鈥檚 future design. From there, the 国产麻豆AV students, as part of a design studio, took the ideas and ran with them.聽 聽
The designs, which have been presented to Bolton High stakeholders, feature elements that visualize the campus as a hub of agricultural learning. One design featured a tiered system based on grade and skill level with younger students tending gardens closer to school buildings while older students completed more complex tasks in outlying row-crop fields and livestock pastures. Many designs emphasized community involvement by including community sustained agricultural lands, community gardens and farmers markets.
Associate Professor Cory Gallo, and Professor and Department Head Sadik Artunc, co-taught the design studio. Gallo said the experience gave students a chance to tackle a real-world project. 聽
鈥淚 think each one of them took a lot of ownership on the project because the length of time they spent on it. They were able to get into the details of the design,鈥 Gallo said. 聽鈥淭his was a great project for the students as future landscape architects because they had to focus and figure out how to create a viable campus master plan for a school that is very much about community and place.鈥
Bolton High School was an agricultural college and teacher鈥檚 preparatory school at the turn of the last century. The school returned to those roots in part because of Julency Myrtil, a Bolton High senior. Myrtil applied for and obtained a grant from the Kitchen Community, a national nonprofit that builds Learning Gardens for Memphis-area schools. In addition to getting a Learning Garden at the school, Myrtil garnered grants to build more gardens, restore an onsite greenhouse and help rebuild the school鈥檚 agricultural program. Myrtil鈥檚 passion for ag caught on quickly with other students at the school, including Marissa Bradford, who attended the campus master plan presentations at 国产麻豆AV. She said participating in the Learning Garden helped her realize the difference she and her fellow students were making.聽
鈥淣one of this seemed like a big deal to me until we planted seeds in the raised beds. That鈥檚 when it hit me that we were planting a seed that will impact generations,鈥 Bradford said. 鈥淪eeing the 国产麻豆AV presentations made me realize what a difference all of this will make for the school now and in the future.鈥
Becky Baker is a counselor for the international bachelorette students at Bolton High, and she spoke about the tenacity of the students in transforming the school.
鈥淭hese students, many of whom tend our school garden every morning at 6:30 a.m., continue to help develop the vision of Bolton as an agriculture optional school,鈥 Baker said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 amazing to see how young people have embraced the project. For me, it shows that experiential learning is something the students are very interested in.鈥
The 国产麻豆AV landscape architecture department includes majors in landscape architecture, landscape contracting and management, and a dual degree option that combines both majors. Find out more at聽.
国产麻豆AV is Mississippi鈥檚 leading university, available online at .