The Start of Something Green at Dougherty Valley

By Leanne Bolano

A team of dedicated and passionate students have finished constructing and planting Dougherty Valley High School’s very first garden.

This small, but mighty sustainable vegetable garden sits in the back of the school, behind Dougherty’s Culinary Arts classroom by the staff parking lot. Under the direction of Beth Marks, the culinary teacher and gardening advisor at Dougherty, a band of students from her class and a couple of school clubs planned, built, and planted during a span of two years. 

The initial idea for the vegetable garden was proposed by me and a few other students from Dougherty’s Youth Service America (YSA) back in 2011. My main goal was to promote environmentalism and sustainability. We decided to team up with the Food for Thought club and culinary department, who shared this interest, and drafted a preliminary design to propose to school administration and the district. Now two years later, the design is a reality, and is growing quickly. 

This school year, with the help of YSA and the Cooking and Gardening club at Dougherty, the garden has secured community partnerships with Sustainable San Ramon, Peet’s Coffee, Morgan’s Masonry Supply, and Whole Foods with the initial funding grant from their Whole Kids Foundation. Slowly but surely, the garden is gaining attention and support. 

With this project, we have learned more than how to propagate seeds or decipher which soil is best. We have also learned the politics in starting a new project with the help of others, professionalism, and leadership skills. We want to illustrate to others how beneficial it is to grow a garden and hope to inspire our school and outer community to go green.

Leanne Bolano is a senior at Dougherty Valley High.