Help Danielle study permaculture
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MEET DANIELLE PARSONS
Danielle Parsons is a recent graduate from San Diego State University, where she studied Sustainability and Geographic Information Systems, and learned about the power of diverse plants and humans working together to create fertile soil. Since then, Danielle has worked for many land management organizations to gain experience in her field, including the Forest Service and Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks where she witnessed first-hand the negative impacts of overdevelopment and overgrazing. Danielle is eager to transform her education in sustainable land management into practice by applying permaculture principles into all areas of her life and budding career in the field of conservation.
Danielle grew up in Santa Cruz County, and volunteered with the Homeless Garden Project in Santa Cruz during high school. Her goal is to work with the Homeless Garden Project again post-graduation to provide gardening spaces for those with limited access and resources. Danielle wants to gain permaculture skills so that she can apply what she’s learned to her home community. She dreams of creating a closed-loop system that is sustainable for future generations and sequester carbon in the soil to mitigate the impacts of climate change.
We are raising funds for Danielle’s tuition for the Santa Cruz Permaculture Design Certificate course this Fall 2020 and Winter 2021.
By taking this course, she will gain skills and knowledge to advance her career in environmental stewardship, apply permaculture principles to her own life, and foster resilient community projects like the Homeless Garden Project in Santa Cruz.
This six-month permaculture design course begins October 10th, so the fundraising campaign is crucial to Danielle’s ability to join the upcoming cohort. We hope you’ll join us in supporting her permaculture education!
BIOGRAPHY
My name is Danielle Parsons, thank you for allowing me to share a bit about myself with you. While growing up in Santa Cruz, the seeds of appreciation for our Earth were planted by the many hikes in the Redwoods. This sense of wonder and awe catalyzed my passion for land stewardship and propelled me towards learning to become a caregiver of our Planet. While in High School I volunteered with the Homeless Garden Project, and I was inspired by the incredible kindness shared by our local community. I put this passion into practice, and in 2019, I graduated from San Diego State University with a major in Sustainability and a minor in Geographic Information Systems. In addition, I was hugely impacted by becoming a part of Delta Beta Tau, the World’s first Co-Ed Buddhist Service Fraternity, which taught me the value of living with positive intention. Since then, I have worked for many land management organizations, including the Forest Service and Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks. These professional opportunities transformed my desire to become a leader in the field of conservation.
WHY DOES STUDYING PERMACULTURE MATTER TO DANIELLE?
We interviewed Danielle to learn more about why this course is important to her journey.
Please share why this is an important time in your life to enroll in this particular program. In other words what calls you to this course right now? What are you hoping to gain from this program?
I feel called to this program because I am eager to transform my education in sustainable land management into practice and connect with my local biophilia community.
I spent last summer monitoring once-wild ecosystems damaged by overgrazing and wildfire, which made me want to be part of the solution to heal the footprint of overdevelopment. I want to embrace the principles of Permaculture because it offers an excellent marriage of healing the land while also healing the people too.
As I finish my UC Master Gardener Training, I feel empowered by the wonderful group of nature lovers who encouraged me to open up to the incredible world of plants and insects. I am inspired to continue learning about everything related to Earth Sciences and excited to give back to our community that nurtured my love for our generous planet.
I hope this program will facilitate my development as a leader in conservation by enhancing my ecological fluency and stewardship capabilities. As well, I feel strongly about changing our global food system and want to lead by example. Although I am young, I feel this is a great time in my life to get inspired early so I can be a part of the shift in consciousness.
What have been your experiences so far with permaculture and related topics?
While at SDSU, I was profoundly impacted by pledging then becoming a pledge educator in Delta Beta Tau, a Co-Ed Buddhist Service Fraternity. My personal values were heightened to the level of radical compassion for all beings and non-violent communication as a standard. These values are in line with the ethical principles of permaculture, and I hope to transform these values into action within the community and my life.
In my last semester at SDSU, I pursued my passion for botany by taking an experimental course entitled ‘Indigenous Solutions to Urban Agriculture’, which taught me about the power of diverse plants working together to produce fertile soil and resiliency, such as Milpa or Three Sisters. In addition, this class mirrors permaculture as it is a combination of indigenous knowledge with modern scientific methods. I enjoyed getting out of the classroom and into the soil, where we constructed raised beds, installed drip irrigation pipes, planted seeds, and tended to them the entire semester. I learned about the necessity to restructure our global food system and made intentional changes in my own life to be less of a mindless consumer.
In addition, this class blossomed my love for using my hands to work with the land, and inspired me to enroll in the UC Master Gardener Training Program. There are many similarities between the Master Gardener Program and Permaculture principles, both highlight the importance of being stronger when working together and regenerating self-sustaining ecosystems.
How will you use what you learn through this program? What communities do you want to work with?
I will apply the principles of permaculture to my lifestyle and developing environmental career. Specifically, I am eager to learn how to create a closed-loop system that is sustainable for future generations and sequester carbon in the soil to mitigate the impacts of climate change. In addition, I want to redesign my home to be the new normal by making it more efficient with water via a waterless toilet and a greywater system.
I want to give back to the community that raised me, and support the efforts of positive people making a difference within our local area. In addition, I want to reconnect with the organization that imprinted me as a High School volunteer. The first that I want to work with again is the Homeless Garden Project, which is providing gardening spaces for those with limited access and resources, allowing everyone the opportunity to connect with the Earth. In addition, growing up in Santa Cruz county, it is impossible to not notice the growing population of people without steady homes. My heart hurts for these people, but I do not know the best way to support them. However, as I learn more and more about Permaculture, I feel there are tools available to redesign the system to lift everyone up, and not leave others behind without basic necessities.
What do you feel you will bring to the program? What would we miss out on if you were not part of this cohort?
If allowed to join the program, I would share my enthusiasm and passion for learning to live symbiotically within the ecosystem and with the group by staying engaged and asking questions. I live in a steady state of wonder and am constantly curious how things work, therefore I will be an active participant in all we do.
WHAT WILL DANIELLE GAIN IF THE FUNDS ARE RAISED?
Permaculture is an ethically based whole-systems design approach that uses concepts, principles, and methods derived from ecosystems, indigenous peoples, and other time-tested systems to create human settlements and institutions. It’s also been called “saving the planet while throwing a better party.”
The six month Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) course offered by Santa Cruz Permaculture includes the internationally recognized 72-hour curriculum, augmented by an additional 38-hours of hands on practice and field trips.
By enrolling in this course, Danielle will learn to:
- Assess the sustainability of current design systems and practices;
- Define permaculture ethics and the principles of sustainability;
- Employ natural patterns as a design tool in a wide variety of contexts;
- Understand basic soil ecology and implement composting methods;
- Design simple water harvesting systems, from home to broadacre scale;
- Define and design “guilds” or constructed plant communities;
-Understand local food issues and the importance of localization;
- Translate ecological principles to a variety of social, economic, and educational settings;
- Employ best practices for starting and sustaining intentional communities and Ecovillages;
- Apply permaculture methods to educational curriculum design and the creation of school garden programs
Danielle’s network of resources, guides, and community will also grow by participating in this course for the entire six months. The course meets one weekend per month, October to March, and during this time, Danielle will also participate in a group design project to apply the knowledge and skills of the course to a real landscape in the community.
Thank you for supporting Danielle’s dreams! Our goal with this fundraiser is to be able to enroll Danielle in the upcoming cohort, as well as support an ongoing fund for future scholarship applicants to enroll in our courses .
Danielle Parsons is a recent graduate from San Diego State University, where she studied Sustainability and Geographic Information Systems, and learned about the power of diverse plants and humans working together to create fertile soil. Since then, Danielle has worked for many land management organizations to gain experience in her field, including the Forest Service and Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks where she witnessed first-hand the negative impacts of overdevelopment and overgrazing. Danielle is eager to transform her education in sustainable land management into practice by applying permaculture principles into all areas of her life and budding career in the field of conservation.
Danielle grew up in Santa Cruz County, and volunteered with the Homeless Garden Project in Santa Cruz during high school. Her goal is to work with the Homeless Garden Project again post-graduation to provide gardening spaces for those with limited access and resources. Danielle wants to gain permaculture skills so that she can apply what she’s learned to her home community. She dreams of creating a closed-loop system that is sustainable for future generations and sequester carbon in the soil to mitigate the impacts of climate change.
We are raising funds for Danielle’s tuition for the Santa Cruz Permaculture Design Certificate course this Fall 2020 and Winter 2021.
By taking this course, she will gain skills and knowledge to advance her career in environmental stewardship, apply permaculture principles to her own life, and foster resilient community projects like the Homeless Garden Project in Santa Cruz.
This six-month permaculture design course begins October 10th, so the fundraising campaign is crucial to Danielle’s ability to join the upcoming cohort. We hope you’ll join us in supporting her permaculture education!
BIOGRAPHY
My name is Danielle Parsons, thank you for allowing me to share a bit about myself with you. While growing up in Santa Cruz, the seeds of appreciation for our Earth were planted by the many hikes in the Redwoods. This sense of wonder and awe catalyzed my passion for land stewardship and propelled me towards learning to become a caregiver of our Planet. While in High School I volunteered with the Homeless Garden Project, and I was inspired by the incredible kindness shared by our local community. I put this passion into practice, and in 2019, I graduated from San Diego State University with a major in Sustainability and a minor in Geographic Information Systems. In addition, I was hugely impacted by becoming a part of Delta Beta Tau, the World’s first Co-Ed Buddhist Service Fraternity, which taught me the value of living with positive intention. Since then, I have worked for many land management organizations, including the Forest Service and Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks. These professional opportunities transformed my desire to become a leader in the field of conservation.
WHY DOES STUDYING PERMACULTURE MATTER TO DANIELLE?
We interviewed Danielle to learn more about why this course is important to her journey.
Please share why this is an important time in your life to enroll in this particular program. In other words what calls you to this course right now? What are you hoping to gain from this program?
I feel called to this program because I am eager to transform my education in sustainable land management into practice and connect with my local biophilia community.
I spent last summer monitoring once-wild ecosystems damaged by overgrazing and wildfire, which made me want to be part of the solution to heal the footprint of overdevelopment. I want to embrace the principles of Permaculture because it offers an excellent marriage of healing the land while also healing the people too.
As I finish my UC Master Gardener Training, I feel empowered by the wonderful group of nature lovers who encouraged me to open up to the incredible world of plants and insects. I am inspired to continue learning about everything related to Earth Sciences and excited to give back to our community that nurtured my love for our generous planet.
I hope this program will facilitate my development as a leader in conservation by enhancing my ecological fluency and stewardship capabilities. As well, I feel strongly about changing our global food system and want to lead by example. Although I am young, I feel this is a great time in my life to get inspired early so I can be a part of the shift in consciousness.
What have been your experiences so far with permaculture and related topics?
While at SDSU, I was profoundly impacted by pledging then becoming a pledge educator in Delta Beta Tau, a Co-Ed Buddhist Service Fraternity. My personal values were heightened to the level of radical compassion for all beings and non-violent communication as a standard. These values are in line with the ethical principles of permaculture, and I hope to transform these values into action within the community and my life.
In my last semester at SDSU, I pursued my passion for botany by taking an experimental course entitled ‘Indigenous Solutions to Urban Agriculture’, which taught me about the power of diverse plants working together to produce fertile soil and resiliency, such as Milpa or Three Sisters. In addition, this class mirrors permaculture as it is a combination of indigenous knowledge with modern scientific methods. I enjoyed getting out of the classroom and into the soil, where we constructed raised beds, installed drip irrigation pipes, planted seeds, and tended to them the entire semester. I learned about the necessity to restructure our global food system and made intentional changes in my own life to be less of a mindless consumer.
In addition, this class blossomed my love for using my hands to work with the land, and inspired me to enroll in the UC Master Gardener Training Program. There are many similarities between the Master Gardener Program and Permaculture principles, both highlight the importance of being stronger when working together and regenerating self-sustaining ecosystems.
How will you use what you learn through this program? What communities do you want to work with?
I will apply the principles of permaculture to my lifestyle and developing environmental career. Specifically, I am eager to learn how to create a closed-loop system that is sustainable for future generations and sequester carbon in the soil to mitigate the impacts of climate change. In addition, I want to redesign my home to be the new normal by making it more efficient with water via a waterless toilet and a greywater system.
I want to give back to the community that raised me, and support the efforts of positive people making a difference within our local area. In addition, I want to reconnect with the organization that imprinted me as a High School volunteer. The first that I want to work with again is the Homeless Garden Project, which is providing gardening spaces for those with limited access and resources, allowing everyone the opportunity to connect with the Earth. In addition, growing up in Santa Cruz county, it is impossible to not notice the growing population of people without steady homes. My heart hurts for these people, but I do not know the best way to support them. However, as I learn more and more about Permaculture, I feel there are tools available to redesign the system to lift everyone up, and not leave others behind without basic necessities.
What do you feel you will bring to the program? What would we miss out on if you were not part of this cohort?
If allowed to join the program, I would share my enthusiasm and passion for learning to live symbiotically within the ecosystem and with the group by staying engaged and asking questions. I live in a steady state of wonder and am constantly curious how things work, therefore I will be an active participant in all we do.
WHAT WILL DANIELLE GAIN IF THE FUNDS ARE RAISED?
Permaculture is an ethically based whole-systems design approach that uses concepts, principles, and methods derived from ecosystems, indigenous peoples, and other time-tested systems to create human settlements and institutions. It’s also been called “saving the planet while throwing a better party.”
The six month Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) course offered by Santa Cruz Permaculture includes the internationally recognized 72-hour curriculum, augmented by an additional 38-hours of hands on practice and field trips.
By enrolling in this course, Danielle will learn to:
- Assess the sustainability of current design systems and practices;
- Define permaculture ethics and the principles of sustainability;
- Employ natural patterns as a design tool in a wide variety of contexts;
- Understand basic soil ecology and implement composting methods;
- Design simple water harvesting systems, from home to broadacre scale;
- Define and design “guilds” or constructed plant communities;
-Understand local food issues and the importance of localization;
- Translate ecological principles to a variety of social, economic, and educational settings;
- Employ best practices for starting and sustaining intentional communities and Ecovillages;
- Apply permaculture methods to educational curriculum design and the creation of school garden programs
Danielle’s network of resources, guides, and community will also grow by participating in this course for the entire six months. The course meets one weekend per month, October to March, and during this time, Danielle will also participate in a group design project to apply the knowledge and skills of the course to a real landscape in the community.
Thank you for supporting Danielle’s dreams! Our goal with this fundraiser is to be able to enroll Danielle in the upcoming cohort, as well as support an ongoing fund for future scholarship applicants to enroll in our courses .
Organizer
David Shaw
Organizer
Santa Cruz, CA
