Seeds for Schools Winner #9 - Milpitas High School

Milpitas High School
Milpitas, CA
# of Students: 2,945
Gardening Since: 2012

The winning school with the largest enrollment this year in our Seeds for Schools program is Milpitas High School located in Milpitas, CA. With a 9th grade to 12th grade enrollment of 2,945 students, Milpitas High is just starting their school’s gardening program.

Their decision to start a school garden was made to reclaim a part of the campus that had been used to store junk and trash and create a garden where their special education students could get exercise, and learn skills for recreation.

“This garden would be a boon to [our students] in terms of learning social skills,: said Dave Sorenson a faculty member at the school and the submitter of the application.

Seeds for Schools: Winner #1 - Ravenna High School

Over the course of the next 10 days, we are going to feature our 10 winners from our recent Seeds for Schools campaign. All winners were chosen from hundreds of applications submitted during our open enrollment period for the program and will receive a 3 year membership to Mike the Gardener's Seeds of the Month Club.

The choices were tough as there were so many schools that were excellent candidates. We wanted to feature each winner daily to give you a better idea of who they are and the gardening programs they use to teach the children in their schools.

Ravenna High School

Ravenna, Michigan

# of Students: 280

Gardening Program: Since 2001

Ravenna High School is located in Ravenna, Michigan which is about 3 and half hours west of Detroit. At 100 years old, Ravenna is committed to a quality and rigorous education that enables their students to be prepared for the challenges that they will face in the 21st century.

Ravenna's application was submitted by Melanie Block who has been teaching agricultural science since 2000. Their school garden was started in 2001 with the construction of their greenhouse.

Ms. Block's philosophy is hands on teaching when it comes to plant science and the school garden gives her and her students just that. And who can argue? She has been named Michigan Agriscience teacher of the year ... twice!

In 2000, Ravenna's agricultural program had only 22 students and today that number hovers near 200 which is nearly the entire student body!

"When I told the students we had been chosen as one of the winner's, a big cheer went out throughout the class," said Ms. Block. Now, Ravenna's students are eager to plant some seeds and get their hands dirty.