![\"Student](\"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/shi-institute\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/182\/2025\/07\/Nia_Headshot-scaled.jpg\")
Do you know teenagers with nothing to do over the summer? Do you want to see them become active members of their community? Then consider this\u2026<\/p>\nDo you know teenagers with nothing to do over the summer? Do you want to see them become active members of their community? Then consider this\u2026<\/p>\n
Throughout the summer, the nonprofit Sustaining Way<\/a> hosts the Steward Youth Program<\/em>, an immersive opportunity for high school students to get out of the house and into the dirt, quite literally. The program introduces fellows to sustainable living by engaging them in hands-on gardening, leadership development, and community involvement.<\/p>\n My name is Nia Drummond and I am a rising junior and Elementary Education major. As the Sustainable Education Intern, I help curate and facilitate the lessons in sustainability that the fellows receive. When we\u2019re not pulling weeds or running lessons, you\u2019ll find us exploring the Greenville Zoo, Rutherford Road Recycling Center, Roper Mountain Science Center, Conestee Nature Preserve, and many more sustainable sites around Greenville. The learning extends far beyond the garden beds.<\/p>\n Steward Youth Fellows and a pollinating bee.<\/p><\/div>\n What makes Sustaining Way\u2019s work especially important is how rooted it is in the community. By employing and mentoring youth from the Nicholtown neighborhood, the organization creates opportunities where they\u2019re needed most. These students don\u2019t just get a summer job; they get access to knowledge and a vision for a more sustainable future. Their work helps keep the garden running, which in turn provides fresh produce and herbs to the local community. To support this program and help it continue to flourish, please consider contributing to The Future Stewards Fund<\/a>.<\/p>\n Steward Youth Fellows in the Sustaining Way Garden<\/p><\/div>\n My experience this summer has been nothing short of enlightening. As an elementary education major at Furman, I was nervous to step into a space where the students were older and the subject matter\u2014sustainability\u2014wasn\u2019t my primary focus. Sustaining Way washed away those doubts from the start.<\/p>\n During my first week, I led a solo lesson at Carolina Literacy Project, teaching the anatomy of a plant. Since then, I\u2019ve delivered lessons on the Hunger Gap, Food Apartheid, and even resume writing.<\/p>\n What I didn\u2019t expect was how much I would grow alongside these students. I came in thinking I would be teaching, but I\u2019ve been taught just as much about resilience, about sustainable education, and the power of community-led change. Watching these teenagers grow more confident in their knowledge, their voices, and their sense of responsibility has reshaped the way I see education. It\u2019s not just about standards or classrooms, it\u2019s about nurturing people and giving them tools to nurture the world around them.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Do you know teenagers with nothing to do over the summer? Do you want to see them become active members of their community? Then consider this\u2026 Throughout the summer, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1694,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-student-blog"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/shi-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/shi-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/shi-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/shi-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/shi-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1693"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/shi-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1693\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1696,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/shi-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1693\/revisions\/1696"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/shi-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/shi-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/shi-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/shi-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Steward](\"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/shi-institute\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/182\/2025\/07\/Steward-Youth-Fellows-3--scaled.jpeg\")
![\"Steward](\"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/shi-institute\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/182\/2025\/07\/Steward-Youth-Fellows-4.jpeg\")