On May 1, 2014 the Spring cohort of BEETS (Band of Environmentally Educated and Employable Teens) had their graduation at the Hayes Valley Apartments Community Room. Congratulations to Darwin Cruz, Wendy Guan, Roderick Irby, Joana Juan, Venyse Sims, Kyle Taylor-Patterson, Angelica Tillman, Naomi Tong, Hakim Tookes, Dexter Tan, Deante Traylor-Manigo, and Juan Villalta. Family, friends, past BEETS alumni, service providers, board members and CommunityGrows staff joined in the celebration.
For the past 14 weeks these teens participated in numberous activities, including a team building retreat at Baker Beach, a Recology tour, a Expanding Horizons Conference, Crissy Field Backyard Bound Earth Day Overnight Camping Trip, a tour from the Green Streets Team, and a Rosa Parks Fundraiser. They also attending classes and workshops in basic garden maintenance, youth training, personal goal setting, financial literacy, resume and cover letter writing, and job searching. They learned how to do lesson plans in environmental education and were able to assist with many of our CommunityGrows classes in our school and after-school programs. They also participated in many cooking adventures and classes, and workdays in our gardens.
The teens got a chance to talk about how the program supported them and what they learned working in the CommunityGrows gardens.
Each BEET got special awards, gifts, a paycheck, and a new shirt to help them look their best in future job interviews. Congratulations on a successful accomplishment!