August 20, 2018 – Relying on gumption and unbridled enthusiasm to change the world around her, making a difference with her ideas, fighting social norms, unwavering in seeking solutions for others, and giving rise to emotional expectations is the script of a small, in stature, but huge in heart woman. Born in India, but making a huge difference in Waller County, TX, Alpana Lakshmi is on a mission to connect agriculture and to strengthen the community’s mental health and wellness with Family Ties, a local non-profit family resource services organization.
Communities, whether rural or urban, professional or blue collar, full of diversity or homogeneous, are the key component that allows members to endure hardships and to extend positive life-long capacities for growth and development, in turn creating a relatable environment. Since the beginning of time, nature and gardening have improved health and the outlook on life. As a medium for positivity, a collaboration was forged between researchers and extension personnel to establish a therapeutic garden for the summer youth and teen camp “Creating and Sustaining Your Own Garden,” Family Ties looked to the community university, PVAMU, to triangulate effectiveness, quality, and know-how.
Lakshmi utilized the tripartite mission of the land-grant university to connect the identity, purpose, and culture of the College of Agriculture and Human Sciences (CAHS) to influence community knowledge. Because the Cooperative Extension Program (CEP) plays an integral part in providing leadership, partnerships, and opportunities to a large percentage of a population under 18, extension personnel focused on sharing information by giving talks, visiting the site, and providing consulting and mentoring on the selection, design, installation, and maintenance of the plants. A parent stated, “The plants brought my kids closer as they watered and cared for the plants together.” The augmentation of caring for others is the land-grant model, in short, reflective of CEP.
Often in the land-grant system, extension operates as the arm to the community, while the Cooperative Agricultural Research Center (CARC) component viewed as “potentially mad scientists” working in labs. However, this observation is not valid for CARC researchers, because they are encouraged to move beyond their academic disciplines to bring awareness of the interests of their funding agencies and to articulate the myriad ways in which their research can deliver benefits for the society.
CARC’s researchers expanded the fundamental mission of Family Ties’ therapeutic garden by combining the university knowledge and invaluable support to underpin the university’s mission of tangible benefits to the local community while adding richness to existing teaching and research programs. CARC donated more than 100 plants, soil, and fertilizer to the project in conjunction with ongoing expert mentorship and coaching.
Executive Director, Heather Stautmeister, expressed gratitude and appreciation for the thoughtful materials and the non-economical personalization of caring and sustainable development of PV’s employees, “…Donors like you help make our therapeutic garden possible and allow us to offer optimum holistic care to children and families, who otherwise could not afford a garden.”
PVAMU not only fosters scholarship and cultivates creativity; it is the catalyst of giving back to the community as a top priority on its students’ to-do list. Sometimes, all it takes is one person to create a village and that one person was Alpana Lakshmi, a former graduate assistant in the Cooperative Extension Program (CEP) Agriculture and Natural Resources (AgNR) division and a 2017 PVAMU graduate with a master of science degree in human sciences with a focus on marriage and family studies.
Kelley A. Redmon
Communications Specialist
karedmon@pvamu.edu
(936) 261-5009