You can help YEA Corps expand our sustainability programs by adopting a fish, mushroom, plant or worm.  Or adopt one of each! These cute buttons will be available at the Celebration of Sustainability at Faces Mears Park on Thursday, August 25th.  You can also adopt online by going to yeacorps.eventbrite.com and we will mail you your buttons.

Minneapolis, MN- August 3, 2011- YEA Corps launches Sustainable Education Internship Center (SEIC) welcoming college students from across the country to make an impact on the organization.

Partnering with Grand Aspirations for their Summer of Solutions program, YEA Corps embarked on their first class of Sustainable Education Interns. 15 students began working with YEA Corps in June of 2011 and will graduate in August, 2011 with a certificate recognizing their completion of the program.

SEIC is designed similar to YEA Corps’ mission, emphasizing sustainability and entrepreneurship as the core basis of the program. Students, varying in school coursework and sustainable working-experience, are matched to projects and volunteer board members based on their skill sets and interests. This year’s SEIC class is working on YEA Corps’ flagship sustainable projects: aquaponics, vermacompositing and the cultivation of mushrooms, each intern bringing their own piece to each project. Interns are specializing in all facets of the organization: business and grant writing; research and education development; technology and sustainable development as well as marketing and social media.

“The Sustainable Education Internship Center is far exceeding any expectation I ever had,” said Mary Helen Franze, Executive Director of YEA Corps. “Students are energetic, hard-working and innovative. SEIC creates a larger capacity for YEA Corps to educate more youth on sustainable practices while giving interns the opportunity to apply job skills needed to market themselves.” While interns grow and expand the mission of the organization, they’re gaining job preparation skills.

The first class of SEIC will come to a close mid-August in time for YEA Corps’ fundraiser on August 25th. As part of the internship, students were asked to make a video showcasing their experience with YEA Corps and the impact of the organization’s sustainable projects. The video will be featured at the fundraiser.

SEIC is located at 300 Industrial Blvd., Minneapolis, MN 55413 at our high school partner, Minnesota Internship Center Charter High School’s East site. We look forward to working with their students in the Fall.

About YEA Corps
YEA Corps, Young Enterprising Agents, is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, specializing in sustainable educational projects in the classroom. Partnering with Minnesota Internship Center (MNIC), hands-on sustainable labs are implemented into student curriculum, continuing YEA Corps’ mission: “Enterprising programs that empower youth with job skills and sustainable education.” Additional information about YEA Corps can be found online at www.yeacorps.org.

About Grand Aspirations: Summer of Solutions
Summer of Solutions is a volunteer-based program, partnering participants with community projects focused on sustainability. For additional information about Grand Aspiration and the Summer of Solutions program visit www.grandaspirations.org.

About Minnesota Internship Center (MNIC)
The Minnesota Internship Center High School is open to all students, with a concentration on students needing an alternative to traditional high schools. MNIC is built on the principal of a small learning community. Curriculum is focused on job preparation, career exploration and life skills. For additional information visit www.mnic.org.

This summer Yea Corps is partnering with Summer of Solutions, and I am one of 15 college-aged interns from all over the country.  Working with Yea Corps isn’t your average internship.  Instead of files and paperwork, there’s tilapia and mushrooms.  Instead of long hours trapped in a cubical, there’s the freedom to work how and where you like.  There’s the expectation that all of us interns have the ability to not only contribute to the mission of Yea Corps, but also guide the direction of the organization.  We’re all entrepreneurs and we’re finding our niche within Yea Corps.

My niche is mushrooms.  Other interns are working on maintaining the aquaponics system and looking into ways to improve it.  We have an algae specialist, photosynthesis specialist,  system productivity specialist, and composting specialist.  There are interns writing grants, documenting our work on video, and creating and refining curriculum.  We’re a group with a variety of interests and skills who have come together to change the way education and sustainability are viewed.  We’re preparing ourselves and others with the skills to create meaningful jobs.   There’s definitely something special going on here.

Andi Thone, YEA Corps Intern

The school year at the Minnesota Internship Center Charter School (MNIC) is just concluding, as is the first science class program partnership between MNIC and YEA Corps.  The MNIC campus’ were abuzz with the exciting news of growing fish, plants, and fungi on site!

This past year year, especially the second semester, had its share of drama and exciting moments, just as you would experience once you get out in the ‘real world.’ Amongst a dreadfully slow spring onset, the students witnessed the power of an outdoor hoop house micro environment that allowed their plants from the previous season to germinate while still snow covered outside ground! While indoors, the tomato and basil plants grew so quickly that 3 weeks ago the students had to transplant and move them into their garden outside.  The plants had outgrown our UV-mimicking HPS lighting system.  Our successful growth is the result of a properly maintained and designed aquaponics system.  The students have now re-seeded the planting tanks with watercress to continue the acquaponics life circle.  In the last week of the spring semester, the students’ shiitake mushrooms EXPLODED in growth after weeks of speculation and wonder if they would ever fruit.  It was a glorious reward for patient and proper care.

As in real life, not every day brings sunshine.  Setbacks do occur.  A few of the students discovered that their tomato plants had been infected with something as they were being transferred to the garden.  And some of our mushrooms began to sport a curious fuzz, suspected to be a type of fungal infection.  Theories that both were fungal infections and deductive reasoning based on the occurrence of the infections at only one of the two sites, led the students to conclude that the ventilation in the basement class room site, mixed with a high moisture level was the cause of these infections.  Probably the most reported incident was the infamous death of one of our tilapia fish.  During a temporary move from one tank to another, one fish tried to make a dash for it and ended up with fatal injuries from its plunge to the floor.  Since Mr. Briggs was in charge of the transfer, the students decided to pin the death on him and wrote him up in the monthly student newspaper.

All in all, the program was a great learning experience for the students and a successful start of a hands-on, interactive, and integrated curriculum. This partnership and YEA Corps program is poised for major growth in the 2011-2012 school year.

Stay tuned for Summer and Fall program opportunities, announcements, and more!

Zach

YEA Corps’ Sustainable Program, being conducted at the Minnesota Internship Center in Minneapolis, is as exciting as ever.

Mr. Briggs’ science class was very excited as the fish arrived and everyone ran to greet them. Preparations were in action with students washing hydroponics rocks (the round red rocks in the plant beds on top of the fish tank in these pictures). The seedlings and starter plants are being added soon. Everything needs to be clean and sterile as we don’t want our human bacteria in these ecosystems. Each student named their fish, and will have to move their minds from caring for them as pets to eating them for sustained nutrition. That won’t be easy and is part of the learning. I noticed that the fish grew within one week!

Brandon Pitcher, YEA Corps’ sustainable consultant and mushroom expert, was visited Friday March 25 and helped with the mushroom preparation. He shared his knowledge of the 5 kingdoms and the students were fascinated! The students prepared a substrate of cleaned coffee grounds and filters in a bucket drilled with holes for venting. The mushroom spores came in a compact cube of sawdust that was inside a compostable cardboard box that had seeds in the side and could be plated to grow a tree. Porsha loved this, and looks forward to planting a tree. The spores were carefully loosened from the sawdust cube and added to the substrate along with the remaining sawdust (everything is used) to grow oyster mushrooms. The most important thing to maintain in this ecosystem is the humidity, and they get quite thirsty! The students are on it and will keep up on watering the little darlings as they watch to see the mushrooms grow off the coffee ground substrate. Keep checking back to see our food as it grows, and hear about all the changes the students are observing and recording. This is an amazing and exciting hands-on way to learn about scientific ecosystems, research, data collection, biology, cause and affect, nutritious eating. The learning is expediential!

Until then, be good. Ms. Helen

The Aquaponics station is built; the fish tank has water, and is anxiously awaiting the arrival of our 45 fingerling tilapia fish! The red wiggler worms are multiplying in our vermicompost (and you know what that means…more worm waste to fertilize and feed the fish) in Mr. Briggs’ science classroom at the Minnesota Internship Center High School in Minneapolis. The students are experimenting to see how long it takes for a whole orange to decompose by the little red wigglers.< Everyone has a different estimate of time.The students are also busy with daily water testing to make sure their aquaponics eco system is ready to introduce the fish…hopefully this Friday! The learning has been rich creating this system, and they are measuring water quality daily with their PH kit.

Who knew learning could be so much fun! With YEA Corps’ Sustainable Program students are always learning with hands on experiences which always motivates the students to go to school, how great is that?

Until next time, be good, Ms Helen

YEA Corps had an energizing, enlightening experience when we collaborated with our new partner, Brandon Pitcher of 5 Kingdoms Development, at the beginning of February. Brandon brought new wisdom and consultation to our YEA Corps team through stimulating synergistic conversations, filled with shared passion and commitment to preserving nature and all her species.

YEA Corps shares Brandon’s enthusiasm for the ‘blue economy’. His workshop on the 5 Kingdoms and ZERI organization, has sparked a flame into our organization and our new zero-waste systems we are creating, growing, and maintaining at MNIC. He is consulting us on our Mushroom project to help us maintain a proper ecosystem. Additionally, Brandon will bring his advice to our Algae growing system. Algae have a multitude of functions for sustainability and we are excited to include it as one of our systems in our Sustainability Program we are teaching the students at MNIC. A shout out of thanks goes to Brandon for his partnership, commitment to sustainability, and wise council to our YEA Corps. We look forward to a fruitful partnership.

A little about Brandon: “Brandon has been a leading change agent in the Midwest for nearly a decade and was recently commended in 2010 with the Indiana Green Business Awards “Green Entrepreneur of the Year” as well as being recognized by Sen. Lugar’s office as an “Energy Patriot” for his dedication to social entrepreneurship and sustainability education over the past decade. His passion for change management and sustainability started at an early age, having given his first lecture on sustainability at Purdue University (a school he did not attend) when he was 20 years old. He has given over 300 presentations across Indiana, throughout the US, and internationally. He has presented at MIT, the United Nations University in Tokyo and many other prominent venues on his work in Indiana, sustainability and zero emissions efforts. He is currently working with a variety of organizations from businesses to civil society throughout the Midwest educating their stakeholders for the opportunities within the current economic transition.”  Read More on Resources.

Pictures of our fish growing are coming up in the next couple of weeks be sure to check them out. After that we will have pictures of aquariums filled with algae and mushrooms growing- How fun is that?! Until then…be good.

-Ms. Helen

YEA Corps is partnering this fall with Minnesota Internship Center’s (MNIC) Education and Business Internship Circle site located in the Sabathani Community Center. MNIC is a 4-campus charter school in Minneapolis, serving youth and young adults primarily in Minneapolis’ inner-city communities. MNIC’s mission is to offer internships and learning opportunities to help the youth develop skills in self-sufficiency and obtain a high school diploma.

We have just completed the construction of hoop houses at the Sabathani Community Garden, which is in the back yard of the school. The students were very enthusiastic to use many tools, especially the power tools, to create the hoop houses. They planted spinach, carrots, lettuce, and a variety of herbs.  They look forward to serving and eating the produce in their school cafeteria. We have also began our vermi-composting project at two of the MNIC schools: Education and Business Internship Circle and East School, formally called English Language Academy. Ellen Sandbeck, with Laverme’s Worm Composting, joined us to create worm composts. The students were fascinated with the simplicity of this operation, yet skittish to handle the red wiggler worms. Some brave souls rolled up their sleeves and got right into the dirt. All were amazed at the process and look forward to the daily care of collecting compostable waste and seeing it turned into rich soil for use in their gardens. The science class will manage the compost, track the changes, and apply their learning in a multitude of disciplinary areas. The YEA Corps team will be involved weekly to enrich and enhance this project.

Up next is our January Aquponics project.   Aquaponics is the combination of aquaculture and hydroponics in a closed loop ecosystem.    One part of this relationship is that the worm castings will be used to fertilize the plants and as the worms multiply, they can be used for fish food.  This will be  a unique and fascinating undertaking, so be sure to check out our blog for future updates.  The students are also considering growing spores. The business minded students have recognized the high cost and profits they could yield from selling shiitake mushrooms. Stop back to our website to get all the updates, and see our pictures.

Volunteers are always welcome! Please send an email to info@yeacorps.org if you would like more information.

YEA Corps has partnered with Street Works, hosted by Emerge and Homegrown of Minneapolis, and will be at the Mill City Farmers Market this Saturday, September 4.  The Street Works youth will be selling produce they raised this summer. They have fabulous collard greens, kale, mustard, squash, red onions, cucumber, lemon balm herbs, green peppers and jalepeno peppers, and several varieties of tomatoes, including ground (a very unique nutty flavor small tomato), red and yellow cherry, green and big boy. Yum!

Carol Lauer nominated YEA Corps for a Connecting With Kids Leadership Award. In her nomination she said, “With Mary Helen’s guidance, the students met with the city council, used all available resources to create a community garden and successfully marketed their produce. In the process, the students gained insight to managing their time, teamwork, organizing and presenting ideas to the city and realizing a goal based on hard work. Mary Helen directed the sight of this group and used her mentoring and marketing skills to guide them to their goal.”

The Chowen Park kids and Mary Helen Franze, Yea Corps’ Executive Director, went to the Leadership breakfast on February 26, where they had the opportunity to meet with business leaders, school leaders, School Board members, the mayor and other civic leaders. Although YEA Corps did not win the award, they were honored to be nominated.

YEA is planning another garden market project for 2010 and we’re looking for project partners. Contact Mary Helen at info@yeacorps.org if you are interested in a partnership. We also plan to be at the Mill City Farmers Market. In addition to the garden project, the compost project is being expanded in 2010 and a new aquaponics project is being developed.

As our first year of operations reporting comes to a close, we wanted to welcome in the New Year by thanking all of our donors, friends, family, and business affiliates whose contributions have supported YEA Corps. We truly thank you for a successful year! YEA Corps has made a great deal of progress in our mission, as we share all of this year’s progress; we hope that you will offer your continuing support. Together through YEA Corps, we empower youth to become engaged participants in their community, experienced entrepreneurs and productive workers.

As an organization, YEA Corps sailed through an involved process of securing our operations and 501 (c)(3) tax status certification. All donations in 2009 are qualified as a charitable write-off for tax purposes. Another organizational highlight for YEA Corps was being selected to have a free website build by Sierrah Bravo. We are so grateful to the team of technology experts that made our website possible: www.yeacorps.com.

This is such a great forum for us to share our projects and latest happenings with our community!
YEA Corps would like to thank Thomson Rueters Corporation who supported us with an additional donation this year. We are also honored by the Minnesota Chapter of Social Venture Partners, which selected YEA Corps to apply for the Minnesota Entrepreneur Cup’s annual competition.

Our organization is so proud of this summer’s Organic Garden Farmers Market project. The Edina Chowen youth group successfully planted an organic garden and sold the produce. Kids involved in the project gained valuable experience: presenting to City Council Park Board, working with local merchants to obtain material donations for their garden, marketing and selling produce at the Mill City Farmers Market and working experience in gardening and sustainable practices. Congratulations to our YEA Corps participants! This fantastic group of kids went on to share their knowledge with the community, developing a “How to Build a Compost” CD and video as well as putting on a composting workshop at the Edina Day of Service/Global Climate Day of Action.

As this year comes to a close and another year of opportunity approaches, we hope you will share in our mission by donating to YEA Corps. Your funding will allow us to expand our program within the community, reaching more youth and partnering with more local merchants. We sincerely thank you for any contributions.

The Yea Corps Summer Project was filled with fun, hard work, and a prolific harvest. The Edina Chowen youth group put up a well demonstrated and executed presentation to Edina’s Park Board and City Council for a small amount of green space for their organic garden in a local park.  The Park Board passed it, but the City Council voted it down, even for the year 2010.  They favor a city wide policy to projects.

The tenacious group of Valley View Middle School 9th graders persisted and planted the garden in the back yard of YEA Corps’ Executive Director.  The kids cut grass, tilled the soil and created an awesome garden landscape plan.  They met with community merchants seeking donated materials to make their garden plan a reality.  Thanks go out to Dave from Edina Hardware, who donated much of the needed garden materials.  Home Depot and Bachman’s donated compost and materials.  Chipotle fed the troops on a hot day in late May as the team planted their 16′x16′ garden.  The garden was planted with tomatoes (5 varieties), peppers, carrots, basil, cilantro, and bush beans that would be sold at the YEA Corps stall at the Mill City Farmers Market.

The youth cared for the garden throughout the summer - weeding, watering and thinning the carrots.  The kids gained an appreciation for farmers and gardeners who grow nutritious food.  They also began to see the value of organic food that is more nutritious and sustainable and has a good price.

In August, the youth focused on business and marketing planning in preparation for selling the product at the farmers market. They found the planning phase to be not as much fun as tending the garden, but a necessary step in a successful business venture!  This required team work and commitment, not easy for 14 year olds during their lazy days of summer.  They did a tremendous job, and their business plan was fabulous with each student owning a different segment of the process according to their interest and talents.  We had a technology committee, a display committee, and a marketing/pricing committee.  The marking/pricing committee enjoyed visiting co-ops and other retailers that sell organic product.

Mother Nature provided us with a very dry and cool beginning to the growing season.  By August, all of the tomatoes were still green!  One of our youth, JP, has an interest in cooking and is quite a fan of the Food Network station.  It was his idea to make fried green tomatoes for sampling at the farmers’ market.  He found a tasty recipe on the Food Network website and spent a day cooking.  The panko breadcrumbs proved to be the key ingredient.  Our intern thought they were so good that he encouraged us to sell them.

Harvest day was exciting in that the carrots would finally be revealed. We had enough green tomatoes, carrots, and basil to have a full table at the market.  The harvest day was filled with hard work and leaders emerged.  Thank you Arin for the assembly station ideas for picking, cleaning and bunching the produce for an attractive sales table.  The youth were quick with ideas on how to lessen the work required.  They found the best tool for washing the dirt off carrots to be tooth brushes.  New of course!  Despite process improvements, they still had a lot of work to do and ended up calling their friends to help.  The harvest day wrapped up with a celebration by a bonfire, making s’mores.

Not much sleep was had by any of us as we gathered the next morning at 5 AM - more appreciation for farmers!  Our stall was very attractive with the beautiful hand painted sign by Lily, fresh flowers and hanging baskets.  The sale was a huge success.  Customers who hailed from the south were thrilled to find our fried green tomatoes.  The youth worked the crowd and demonstrated stellar sales skills. We sold everything!

Luckily September provided us with enough warmth for the peppers to grow and our tomatoes to turn red, so we had another successful sale.

This group created two compost sites next to the garden and made a “How to Create a Compost Bin” video.  They reproduced video on CD for sale.  It is also available on YouTube.   They volunteered and conducted a composting workshop at the Edina Day of Service/Global Climate Day of Action on Oct. 24.

This was an amazing, dedicated group of youth volunteers who learned a great deal while connecting with community partners.  The project leader and YEA Corps’ Executive Director, Mary Helen, was amazed at all their dedication and talents.  She truly felt that every one of the youth grew during the project.  They used their unique talents and learned new skills that will benefit them in their future careers and set the groundwork for them to lead a healthy, sustainable lifestyle.  Mary Helen envisions organic gardens growing in pots in the kids dorm rooms during college and backyard gardens throughout their adult lives.

YEA Corps will be at the Mill City Farmer’s market this Saturday, August 22, from 8 AM - 1 PM.  Check out this link for directions: www.millcityfarmersmarket.org.

We’ll be selling our carrots, basil and green tomatoes.  Recipes will be available and with any luck, we will have yummy green fried tomatoes for sampling!

We will also have the compost CD with beautiful hand painted art work by Lily Mahan.

Hope to see you there!