Wrapping up with SYEP

by Brieanna Womack

SYEP stands for Summer Youth Employment Program, which helps young adults get a job for the summer and earn some extra cash. SYEP is funded by the Department of Employment Services. I chose Common Good because I believed it would be beneficial for me to be outside and working on something than staying inside all the time like I have done in previous summers. I didn’t want to continue with the same routine of staying inside summer after summer. I wanted to get outside and have fun, and I thought that working outside would help me accomplish this goal. For most at the time Common Good, I farmed and harvested vegetables and fruit. There would be times when I would help cook and make dishes using the products for the garden. I learned how to make many vegetarian dishes and they were all good and fun to make. I learned how to properly harvest some vegetables and find healthier alternative to keep bugs away from the harvest. I also learned how easy and how hard it was to farm my own garden. As well as learning that all the parts of plant of vegetables can be used or cooked so it’s less wasteful, and gives me more ideas and options to be less wasteful with my food. I have a garden at home so I will take the things that I learned from this job and apply it to my own garden at home. When I have my own home I will hopefully have my own garden and remember how to properly take care of it from my experience at this job. One of the things that I liked about this job site, was how connect the farm was to the community. They have weekly classes with kids ranging from 1-12 years old. Then there was the occasional resident that knows the people who work at the farm that would stop-by or someone who just wanted to say “hi” and have a quick chit chat. The farm also had an event that people for the community were invited to which was fun to see all the different residents that lived in that area. However, this job has had its hardship as well. It was mostly farm work. I dislike being outside or more specifically being in the heat and around bugs and there was a lot of both on this job site. This job site had its ups and downs but so does every job so this job kept the realistic views of a real job that I will be prepared for the jobs I receive in the future.