May Day 2025

 Hello!

May Day was our last big event of the semester, before finals and moving and summer time. May Day is a celebration of Beltane, and of all that our college community has done before the end of the year. We celebrate with club presentation, speech's from several students, Professors, and faculty members, planting of the new Native Plant Garden, dancing around the May Pole, acrobatics, and academic presentations. 

It was a lovely ceremony! 

Rosegrow hosted the planting of the native plant garden, next to Connelly Hall. We sold raffle tickets for a gardening basket and the opportunity to paint gnomes and rocks to place in the garden, which was a huge success!

Painted rocks are useful, especially in vegetable gardens, as they deter birds from eating the fruits of your plants!

Anyone walking around campus should be sure to take a detour next to Connelly Hall to see the gorgeous plants and beautifully painted gnomes and fairies. 

After we tabled, and danced the May Pole, we moved into the library for academic presentations. 

I was happy to get the opportunity to present my work on my senior thesis, which is looking at the impact of the historical book Theatrum Botanicum (1640), by John Parkinson, and the evolution of botanical sciences in England and the Americas.

In addition to this presentation, I put together an archive exhibit, which is currently in the downstairs stacks of the reading room at the Gertrude Kistler Memorial Library! 

Dr. Moravec presented on the history of gardens in the Synnott family, the development of chrysanthemums in botany,  and the development of the flower show. 

After the presentations, awards were given to students! 

The Rosegrow awardees were:

Mia Hoppel- Leadership Award 

Pearl Smith- Sustainability, Gardens & Animals Award

Tori Jones- Visual Narratives Award

Lucia Madron- Campus Photographer Award

Mark Laywhyee- Triple Crown Blooming Bard Award 

Gianna Benson- Outstanding Senior Award 

Gianna Benson- 103Benson

Sydney Coleman- Hearth & Hands Artisan Award 

They were all so well deserved, and I was so honored to get to work alongside all of my amazing peers to make this semester the best it could be! 

Getting the opportunity to showcase our work at May Day, I was really pleased with how far we've come since the beginning of the semester. 

We brought back Rosegrow (and are ending the semester with sixteen active members!), planted a native plant garden (and began the re-wilding process),  utilized our greenhouse, started the Patrick Herman Memorial Vegetable Garden, presented and helped organize the Climate Teach-In, hosted Earth Day Events, and presented at May Day. 

I feel we've all done great work in making our campus a more sustainable, more beautiful place, and I can't wait to see what work will be done next year! 

May we all continue learning, growing, and supporting each other, in our mission to protect our common home. <3

Xx, Mia Hoppel, Sustainability Intern.

Earth Day 2025

 Hello!

Today we celebrated Earth Day on Rosemont Campus. I was really excited to help plan and participate in a variety of activities across campus today. Coming back from Easter break to a beautiful, 75 degree sunny day, with gardening and environmental activities happening all around school was really delightful. 

At 11am, several students, staff and faculty members gathered at the future site for the Patrick Herman Memorial Vegetable garden to till the soil and dig trenches for the raised beds to be placed.

The digging of this area was such a delightful and meaningful way to spend the morning, and it was lovely to see such a big turn out of so many students from so many different classes, who all have been coming together to make this vegetable garden happen. Before we got to digging, the vice president of the Rosegrow Environmental Coalition, Pearl Smith, and I watered our vegetable starts and native plants.

So many more vegetables are beginning! We have tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, sweat peas, snap peas, arugula, habanero peppers and bell peppers which have sprouted so far (and more to come)! Our native plants, of which we have: bleeding hearts, Virginia blue bells, mountain laurel, asters, foam flowers, phlox, wild ginger (and more to come!) are all looking lovely and healthy and ready to be planted in the new re-wilded native plant garden outside of Connelly Hall on May 1st. 

After the prepping of the Patrick Herman Vegetable Garden, the Sophmore Tree Planting took place. This is a Rosemont tradition that goes back many years, and recently has taken place as part of our Earth Day celebrations. There are trees all over Rosemont Campus that have been planted by different Sophmore classes, and they make up a good amount of beautiful and ecologically diverse foliage on campus. 

This year, the Sophmore tree for Rosemont, class of 2027, is a native redbud tree! It was planted in the lawn outside of our beautiful chapel. 

After the tree planting, there were many more different activities on campus, culminating in our Rosegrow Environmental Coalition Natural Dyeing activity! 

We met in the Marshall Garden outside of the Gertrude Kistler Memorial Library, and we set up tables with turmeric dye and hibiscus dye, and invited students, staff and faculty to either bring their own items for dyeing, or use some we had donated. In addition to the natural dyes, we had fabric paints and stencils for additional decorating. 

It was a wonderful day, and I was proud to have the opportunity to showcase the work I've done, and to highlight the amazing work my peers have done this semester! It was really great to see all of our campus celebrating our home together; our home that is Earth, and our home that is this wonderful school. Everyday we continue to work on these projects, like the Patrick Herman Memorial Vegetable Garden, and continue to celebrate our import Rosemont history and unique culture, with activities like the Sophmore tree planting, we show everyone the mantra I've been repeating: 

We matter. Our work matters.

To cap the day off with a delightful afternoon activity, making t-shirts, listening to music, and eating good food in good company gave us an important moment of celebration. This is, of course, part of gardening; you plant the seeds and you can reap what you've sowed. We have created an amazing, dedicated community, and today really showed that. 

With the losses that are hitting our community, it's so important to hold tight to values, to protect what matters, and have fun with each other, in the time and space we have left, whenever and however we can.

The next event I and other Rosegrow members will be participating is our May Day celebration! This is going to be an amazing event with many different highlights, but I'm most excited for the planting and unveiling of our native plant garden next to Connelly Hall. 

I hope to see you all there! Let's celebrate together, and make our home a better place!

Xx Mia Hoppel, Sustainability Intern 

It is not enough to have begun well; you must also persevere, and finish with resolution.

 Hello!

On March 9th, we had our campus wide Climate Teach-In. This event celebrates the history of Earth Day, which began as a college event in the 60s, during which students and Professors walked out of classes, gathered together with other members of the community, and invited each person to share what they knew about the environment. It began as an opportunity to learn from one and other, and to help make our planet better by understanding the perspectives of others and coming together as a community.

Today, Bard College started promoting campus wide Climate Teach-Ins to celebrate the spirit of the original Earth Day, and to begin to to create an interdisciplinary approach to tackling climate change; because it is a problem that needs to be solved by every person, in every walk of life. Rosemont College has been a proud participant in these Climate Teach-Ins for many years. 

On the 9th, we hosted our Climate Teach-In in Rotwitt Theater. We had two different business classes present on how sustainable work plays into business leadership, we had many, many posters created by students and Professors discussing different aspects of sustainability, and I spoke about by work this semester as the Sustainability Intern and as the student president of the Rosegrow Environmental Coalition. 

Each of these posters was unique, and each of them highlighted the amazing work done by students, staff, and faculty across campus.

We also had archive materials brought out by our head librarian and archivist Chelsea Frank, giving insight into the history of gardening and of sustainability work on Rosemont Campus. 

We  raffled off a basket (with the proceeds going to Rosegrow) which I won! (I promise I didn't rig the pull; I'm just lucky like that). 

After the raffle, poster viewing, student presentations, and my speech, we invited everyone to come outside, view the Greenhouse, which now contains our seed starts and our native plants for the Connelly Garden, to view the work that has been done so far on the Patrick Herman Memorial Vegetable Garden, and finally, to get their hands dirty with us, and plant some seeds in the Greenhouse. 

Even President Jim Cawley got to work, planting habanero peppers!

It was a beautiful day, and the theater was full of staff, faculty, students, alumni, and other community members, coming together to make our campus more sustainability, and to support each other in all of our endeavors. 

We had several people, staff and student alike, join Rosegrow Environmental Coalition after hearing about the work that we had done and the work that we planned to do! Seeing this continued commitment from our campus community to work towards sustainable development, and work towards making our campus more beautiful and more environmentally friendly, gives me hope for our future. 

One of our members, Sydney Coleman, even came to the event before her own Senior Art Exhibit Opening, which was then attended by almost everyone who came to the Climate Teach-In; this itself shows our commitment to one and other, and how our students, staff and faculty have continued to show up for each othe

Sydney Coleman, Senior Art Show.

In my speech, I highlighted this quote by Cornelia Connelly, our founder:

"It is not enough to have begun well; you must also persevere, and finish with resolution."

These are words I am trying to live by, as we are approaching the finish of Rosemont College, and words I am encouraging every member of Rosemont's community to hold dear to them. Now is not the time to give up. Now is the time to finish with resolution.

Xx Mia Hoppel, Sustainability Intern 

Buying Seeds and Planting Starts

 Hello!

This week, myself and other students have done great work moving our plans for a vegetable garden forward. I met with my fellow Rosegrow students Pearl, Gianna, Mark, Tori and Lucy, and one of our faculty advisors Prof. Joanne Campbell, to buy organic vegetable seeds, soil, and supplements. The garden areas have been mapped out and approved, and we planned to start our seedlings in ice cream cones and egg cartons on Monday. Ice cream cones and egg cartons are both biodegradable, so the idea is that seedling may be started in doors in these containers and transferred directly into the earth after the risk of a hard frost has passed; in our corner of the world, this is typically after Mother's Day. We were grateful to be able to buy these supplies with money donated for the Patrick Herman Vegetable Garden, and excited to get to work making our campus and our world a more beautiful place. 

We are able to successfully acquire all of the supplies that we needed to begin to get our garden underway!

Monday, March 17th, was St. Patrick's Day, and the day of our dear friend Patrick Herman's memorial service. His memorial service took place at 12pm, and we wanted to get our seeds started in the morning before hand, so that when the family came to visit the site of the vegetable garden, they could see what vegetables we had planted, and how we were utilizing the greenhouse so far (despite it's current lack of electricity). We planned, as Rosegrow, to meet in the Gertrude Kistler Memorial Library at 10am, and to plant those vegetable seeds! We had already sorted the seeds into those that could be started now, and those which we want to start later in the summer, to make sure that we had produce throughout the summer, and had a good harvest left to share at our campus wide Octoberfest next semester! 

I was thrilled when it was not just Rosegrow students who came, but an entire section of Rosemont's Introduction to Sustainability course! They were a great help in ensuring all of our seeds got planted properly and in a timely manner, and it was lovely to have such a large group of students working together, as well as sustainability professor Radley Reist! 

Prof. Reist gallantly volunteered to fill all our containers with dirt, as we were planting outside, at the site of the future vegetable garden. 

It was a great joy to get to share our project with more of the Rosemont community and get more students and faculty involved in what we're working on, and I was surprised and excited, as I have continually been, by this outpouring of support to make a better planet. 

After starting our seeds, we took the containers up to the greenhouse. Prof. Campbell and Campus Minister Eric Starrs had spent some time cleaning up the greenhouse while we planted. Our greenhouse is still in progress, but, as temperatures at night are no longer so deeply cold, it is warm enough (even without electricity) to support our new baby vegetables. It also offered us the oppo
rtunity to show the greenhouse to those students who hadn't seen it yet, and invite everyone to come help us work on completing it's restoration at our campus wide earth day climate teach-in! 

After other students had left, Pearl Smith, Prof. Campbell and myself stayed behind to organize the seedling and in the greenhouse, and clean it up a little bit more, so that it would be able to visited by Patrick Herman's family later that day. 

We are SO thrilled with the progress made so far! As spring is beginning, we have more and more people dedicated to this project, and all of their passion and love is evident in the work that has been able to take place to date! 

Check back for more updates on this and our other projects, 

Xx Mia Hoppel, Sustainability Intern

A Half-Semester Update

 Hello! 

Welcome back to Nature's Voice, following our spring break, we are now half-way through the semester, and as the temperature begins to heat up, so does the commitment to these sustainability projects! 

The main focus of myself, CCCC, and Rosegrow, have been the rehabilitation of our Greenhouse, in tandem with the establishment of a community vegetable garden and re-wilded patch outside of Connelly Hall. We have had an exciting amount of dedication from all members of Rosemont community in moving these projects forward, with staff, faculty, and students all volunteering their time to help make a better world. The world we dream of is something that's only possible with the continued love and work of people from all walks of life, and it is due to the hope and heart of all of these individuals that any progress is able to be done at all; this is why, first of all, we must always pay respect to everyone in our community, who is working along with us, to ensure that we have hope of a brighter future. 

One of these individuals, who was dedicated to being a steward of our vegetable garden, was Patrick Herman. Patrick Herman worked in the mail room at Rosemont, and was a vital member of our community. He was a well-loved co-worker, and he made himself known to every student on campus, remembering names and facts about all those he encountered, and riding his bike across campus all times of day, in all weather, to keep our community running smoothly. In addition to his friendliness and dedication, he was an avid gardener, and always brought his fresh produce in to share. The tragic passing of Patrick Herman, on the 6th of February, marked a great loss to the Rosemont College community. 

The loss of Patrick inspired many to re-dedicate themselves to our community, as Patrick himself was such a kind, big-hearted, generous person on our campus. 

With this upswell of support, we've been able to create an actionable plan, and work on the creation of our vegetable garden, which will be named the Patrick Herman Memorial Garden. We've received support in the form of monetary donations, plant donations, donation of skilled labor to assist with the building of the garden and the refurbishment of our greenhouse. 

With all of this support, I am hoping that the Patrick Herman Memorial Vegetable Garden can be opened at our Mayday celebration this semester. This will allow our summer stewards, who have volunteered to help maintain this garden when students are on summer break, to take care of our garden once the spring semester is over. 

I am also planning with Rosegrow to begin the planting of several native plants in our re-wilded area, which will be next to Connelly Hall, and to exhibit some of this planting at our Mayday celebration, to give alumni, faculty, staff, and our greater community to see evidence of these projects, and the dedication that has been showed by many this semester. 

With these projects moving forward at high-speed, our seedling plantings are going to begin this Friday! 

Xx Mia Hoppel, Sustainability Intern 

Introducing Nature's Voice

 Hello!

This blog is going to be covering my experiences as a Sustainability Internship at Rosemont College, spring semester of 2025, and the many projects myself and other community members are working on at the end of this school year. This semester, the projects I plan to focus on are:

- Establishing a Re-wilded area outside of Connelly Hall, rich with native plants, to help support our ecosystem and our planet 

-Establish a community vegetable garden behind Hefferman Hall, for students personal use and for use in our dining hall, to ensure our students have access to healthy and organic produce, and help them connect with the process of growing food 

-Assist with the installation of a rain barrel at the Delaware County Intermediate Unit (DCIU), to help them in their continued environmental and sustainability work, in gardens previous interns have established 

-Present on my work and discuss the importance of environmental education at our Earth Day climate teach-in, to get more students, staff, and faculty involved in our work around campus 

I will be working on these projects in tandem with members of the Catholic Climate Covenant Committee (CCCC), which I am a member of, and the Rosegrow Environmental Student Coalition, which I am the student president of. 

Please follow along for more updates on these projects, see how you can get involved, and how we are working to make our planet healthier and our world more sustainable, one small community action at  a time!

Xx Mia Hoppel, Sustainability Intern