Sanya Khan is a student at Colleyville Heritage High School in Colleyville, Texas, and a volunteer Youth Ambassador with the Aga Khan Foundation U.S.A., which works to end poverty in Africa and Asia. As an ambassador, she led a community service project to give elementary school students, in a low-income neighborhood, inspiration for reading and improving their environment. This project began last year with a facelift to the school’s library. Read part one of this story here and volunteer Miriam Ezzani’s piece on the Huffington Post here.
As the final strokes of paint added the finishing touches to the mural in the library, creating an enriching environment for the children at Barron Elementary School, word about creating an outdoor learning center materialized. We made our way outside to the garden to find four dry slabs of patchy grass with few trees and scanty shrubs. The “garden” was barren and unwelcoming.
It was reminiscent of an Aga Khan Foundation project in Cairo, Egypt where a 74-acre mound of rubble was transformed into the magnificent Al-Azhar Park filled with luscious green fields and hundreds of species of plants. The park now serves as a center of recreation and as an economic driver for residents of the surrounding poverty-stricken area. Inspired by this vision, I volunteered to lead a team of fellow youth ambassadors. The AKF Youth Ambassador program, initiated in 2009 in Dallas, Texas, provides the youth a platform to create awareness of the Foundation’s work in Africa and Asia through their initiatives with local disadvantaged communities in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex.
The thought foremost on our minds was, “How do you convert this shoddy space into an area that is bright, welcoming, and educational?” After much brainstorming four themed gardens emerged: rockery/music, shady forest & art, native wildflower, and an herb garden. Each garden also would incorporate part of the K-5 curriculum; therefore, we sought partnership with Mrs. Price, the science teacher, and Betsy Marsh, an expert gardener, who served as the project consultant.
Envisioned, designed, and executed over several sessions was the first rockery/music garden in a 19 by 15 foot area. Using a lone lush oak tree as the centerpiece, we designed a spiral-shaped path that created a walkway of crushed granite for the students to study the plants in four corners. We couldn’t contain our excitement when the school district and Mrs. Loper, the principal, approved our proposal.
Partnerships were forged with Lowe’s, Tex-Art Stone, Living Earth Plano, and Pam Braak, who generously donated the supplies and plants. Prep day finally arrived; we turned over the soil, enriched it with compost, and then created the spiral pathway lining it with mulch. To establish a sense of ownership and connection to the space, we planned a rock painting session for the students and parents.
Lined with colorful rocks painted by students and healthy plants, the rockery and music garden is ready to welcome students next fall.
“You should not expect more than 30 students,” said Mrs. Price. On that day, I stepped out of the car only to find over 50 students with their families ready to personalize their rocks! We had a blast engaging with the students and seeing their wonderful talent. The planting and a second rock painting were planned on the last day of school. Students came out in groups of five, and within hours the garden finally materialized.
Standing back and looking at the garden was truly humbling, and seeing the reaction of the students over this transformed space was priceless. Some of them expressed their desire to “be a painter when [I] grow up” while others indicated they were “relaxed” while painting. Mrs. Loper and Mrs. Price were thrilled with the results as well.
To ensure sustainability of the garden, the Presidential Service Award will be introduced in the fall to motivate students to care for the garden, and hopefully as a means to open doors to greater academic and service opportunities. Leadership, project development, collaboration, partnerships, sustainability of initiatives, and enhancing the lives of others are just some of the lessons learned.
Right before I got in the car, I turned around and gave the garden one last glance. The colorful rocks and green foliage sent my thoughts traveling across the globe to the inspiring setting of Cairo’s Al-Azhar Park. Although on a much smaller scale, it was gratifying to know that we also had created an environment locally that would promote learning and creativity for the students and teachers at Barron Elementary.