With community-engaged learning, students can connect what they are learning in the classroom to what is happening in their communities, giving them skills to think about solutions to environmental, economic and social challenges.
Hayes Farm is a teaching farm in Fredericton and part of UNB’s community-engaged learning program. It is helping create a resilient and thriving food system by providing citizens with the skills, expertise and support they need to practice human-scale regenerative agriculture.
The farm offers an 18-week Regenerative Farming Certificate (RFC) summer internship program. Students balance time between in-class lectures and on-farm work to learn about seasonal food production.
Matthew Golding (BSENR’20), a graduate of UNB’s bachelor of science in environment & natural resources program, took part in the RFC program.
They saw it as an opportunity to take what they learned in the classroom and test it in the field. Not only did they learn a lot from the instructors, but they also learned from the other participants. Working in the field together created a sense of unity with everyone working towards a common goal.
Community-engaged learning is a great networking opportunity for students as well. Matthew is now working full-time for Hayes Farm as a mentor and part of the operations and planning team. Experiential learning helped them find their space in a niche field.
