Outdoor Learning in Davison with Ryan Kelsey and Pam Ruggiero

What started as a patch of lawn outside Davison High School has grown into a thriving outdoor classroom complete with a native pollinator garden, food garden, greenhouse, and small orchard, transforming how students connect with the natural world.

In this Earth Day episode of Philanthropy Speaks, host Jen Farrington talks with fine arts instructor Ryan Kelsey and environmental science teacher Pam Ruggiero about the student-led outdoor learning space they've built over four years at Davison High School, supported by grants from the Davison Fund of the Community Foundation of Greater Flint.

From harvesting tomatoes for the school cafeteria to painting native Michigan wildlife in the open air, discover how this hands-on program is sparking environmental stewardship, reigniting student curiosity, and helping an entire school district rethink its relationship with the outdoors. Plus, Ryan and Pam share why native plants beat a perfect lawn every time, which community partners have made it all possible, and what they hope students carry with them long after they leave the classroom. Visit cfgf.org to learn more about the Davison Fund and the Community Foundation of Greater Flint.

Transcript

Ryan Kelsey 0:00

it's literally right outside one of our doors. So, if you go there at the right time of year. You are swarmed in a good way. It's like an airport of insects and they're all over the place and you're in the middle of flowers that are. In some cases tall as I am, you can get, yeah, you can get lost in there. There's paths that we run through the middle.

Jennifer Farrington 0:21

Welcome to Philanthropy Speaks, the podcast where Flint and Genesee County Community voices lead the conversation. Each episode, philanthropy speaks through lived stories, local leadership, and the people building a stronger community. I'm your host, Jen Farrington, senior program Officer at the Community Foundation of Greater Flint. Let's hear what philanthropy has to say today. In honor of Earth Day, we're talking about what's happening at Davison High School, where art students, environmental science students and other students at the school have come together around an outdoor classroom that started as a garden and has grown into something much bigger. This work has been supported over the years through a variety of small grants from the Davison Fund of the Community Foundation. We're joined by two educators who have been at the center of it all. Ryan Kelsey is a fine arts and design instructor at Davison High School and co-advisor of the Environmental Club. Pam Ruggiero is an environmental science teacher, environmental club co-advisor, green school coordinator, and Michigan Naturalist, also at Davison High School. Ryan and Pam, thanks so much for being here and welcome to the podcast.

Ryan Kelsey 1:22

Thanks for having us.

Pamela Ruggerio 1:23

Thank you.

Jennifer Farrington 1:24

Alright, so to get us started, can you just take a moment to introduce yourselves and your roles at the high school?

Pamela Ruggerio 1:31

So I'm Pam Ruggiero. I've been a teacher at Davison High School. This is my fifth year there. And I teach environmental science currently this year. I have six sections. I'm proud to say that I started that class because when I got there,, a few years ago, we didn't have one. So. I'm happy that we have some investment now from the top of the district down. I also work with Ryan Kelsey here as the co-advisor of the Environmental Club, and kind of basically work as the green school coordinator. I mean, we do the work equally, but I'm the documenter. So that's my role there.

Ryan Kelsey 2:06

And, I'm Ryan Kelsey. I've been teaching visual arts at Davidson for close to 30 years now. And. Work with Pam on a variety of outdoor garden naturalist type projects. And so we've been doing this for, how many years have we been doing this together?

Pamela Ruggerio 2:26

Four.

Ryan Kelsey 2:26

Four years?

Pamela Ruggerio 2:27

Yeah.

Ryan Kelsey 2:27

This is year four.

Pamela Ruggerio 2:28

Mm-hmm.

Ryan Kelsey 2:29

Or, okay. So this is year

Pamela Ruggerio 2:30

four.

Ryan Kelsey 2:30

This is year four. Yeah. So year four. Yeah. And we find. A way to connect our students to nature through the arts. And some kids really get a big kick out of it, I guess. I guess not all kids have to do it, right? I mean, some kids are just art and some kids are probably just science, but we find a big chunk of'em that are willing to do, Both things. Nice

Pamela Ruggerio 2:50

overlap.

Ryan Kelsey 2:51

Yeah.

Jennifer Farrington 2:52

So let's pretend we're, I know you just came from the high school. It's the end of your school day, but let's go back there for a second. Let's set the scene, get a sense of place here. So. Describe to us the outdoor classroom space. What did it look like before and what has it transformed to be?

Ryan Kelsey 3:07

Well, both Pam and I are, we're pretty disgusted by the grass that's everywhere.

Pamela Ruggerio 3:13

Very anti lawn.

Ryan Kelsey 3:14

Yeah. But

Pamela Ruggerio 3:15

we can get into that later.

Ryan Kelsey 3:16

Yeah. So, so we have what used to be big lawn areas that we have transformed into a native plant garden. That's like pollinator based. Are we pollinator?

Pamela Ruggerio 3:29

So, oh yeah, we are.

Ryan Kelsey 3:30

Monarch Waste

Pamela Ruggerio 3:30

Station, the whole idea of at least in that portion of the garden was to increase biodiversity. So, I mean, you step on a lot of campuses and you see just law and lawn. And my first year there. We didn't have environmental science. My first year teaching it, I had the students go outside and say, Hey, let's go count up the biodiversity in this location. And it was like grass.

Ryan Kelsey 3:53

Yeah.

Pamela Ruggerio 3:53

And that was it. They were done. So in an effort to increase biodiversity, we put in native plants.

Ryan Kelsey 3:58

Yeah. And so kids have planted, I mean, thousands of dollars of grant funding. Mm-hmm. That has come through various sources and part of it through the community foundation, thousands of dollars of Native Michigan. Plants that will attract butterflies and bees and other types of insects.

Pamela Ruggerio 4:15

Yeah, so we certified it as a official Monarch waste station because we don't use pesticides or herbicides. And there's food for all stages of a monarch, including as a caterpillar all the way through. They're flight before they leave. So in addition to that, we also have the food portion of the garden. So that was important that we put them both there, Side by side. It's fun now to see this outdoor space because like I said, in my first year when I'd bring my first year of environmental science out, we would to see biodiversity, we'd have to walk pretty far. Away from the campus. And even then it was like, well, let's see what we can find. But now it's like right outside our door and I'll do the scavenger hunts with them at the beginning of the year and they're like, oh my God, there's a mushroom, there's a look at the cool insects they found, and it's just like so easy for them to see stuff and get invested in biodiversity very quickly.

Ryan Kelsey 5:05

Yeah, it's literally right outside one of our doors. So, if you go there at the right time of year. You are swarmed in a good way. It's like an airport of insects and they're all over the place and you're in the middle of flowers that are. In some cases tall as I am, you can get, yeah, you can get lost in there. There's paths that we run through the middle. We have an an outdoor classroom area that is shaded, that sits kind of right in the middle of the outdoor classroom. So as the kids sit down, they can look behind them and see these mushrooms, see these flowers, see these. Bugs.

Pamela Ruggerio 5:40

Yeah,

Ryan Kelsey 5:40

everywhere.

Pamela Ruggerio 5:41

One of my favorite parts of this last year was finding a beautiful orb spider in the garden and showing off the spider with its web that it had weaved to each one of my classes, and realizing a week later, not one single one of them hurt the spider or damaged the web. They were like, sort of, kind of, kind of becoming friends with it or invested in it and saying,

Jennifer Farrington 6:04

that's

Pamela Ruggerio 6:04

awesome. This is like worth protecting. This is really cool. So,

Ryan Kelsey 6:07

yeah. And so next to this native plant garden, we have the food garden where we grow everything from tomatoes and potatoes and beans. A variety of different things, especially things that once kids know that we're doing it, they kinda get excited. I've had kids for two years in a row. I don't even have those boys in class. Dominic and Max, they just show up and plant corn for me.

Pamela Ruggerio 6:33

That's

Ryan Kelsey 6:33

great. And they're, they just love that part of it, planting corn. I've never seen them eat the corn even, but they they like planting it. And then next to that is a greenhouse that there's a collaboration with our nutrition services at the school. And the nutrition service team are big supporters of us and they have purchased that greenhouse. And last semester, last year, we grew Roma tomatoes for the cafeteria and some cilantro for the cafeteria, which they will use in their,

Pamela Ruggerio 7:06

pico De Gail.

Ryan Kelsey 7:06

Pico de Gail, which is amazing.

Pamela Ruggerio 7:08

One of my favorite things to eat at lunch every day.

Ryan Kelsey 7:10

Yeah, so, so it's nice for kids to see how all of these things relate, like we need those bugs for the flowers, but we also need those bugs to pollinate the vegetables also. We also have a small orchard of two apple trees. Two peach trees, two pear trees. That which were donated by a former student and who, whose daughter was in our school. So, I mean, I think that's one of the cool things about, it's that when people find out that we have this, like when we started this, probably the foods and nutrition people didn't, it wasn't even on the map that, that we could do this. And then they saw this garden the first year, especially because we had purchased so much compost. We had so much food. I think they were like. Yeah. Wait, you guys can grow food for us. Let's make that happen. And so they have become a big part of this program and they, and

Pamela Ruggerio 8:01

are still in, in becoming a, a great collaborator. Great

Ryan Kelsey 8:05

collaborator.

Pamela Ruggerio 8:05

Stuff that we could never do on our own.

Ryan Kelsey 8:07

Yeah.

Pamela Ruggerio 8:07

They're helping with. So,

Ryan Kelsey 8:08

and we've had people, in fact last week somebody donated, eight yards of mulch, which is amazing'cause we need a lot of mulch and a lot of compost and a lot of dirt. And so when people find out that we're doing this with kids and they wanna support us, so yeah.

Jennifer Farrington 8:27

So I love it. What you're, how you're engaging students outside the classroom. Like, can you share kind of what you're noticing, what changes you're noticing in students you know, what has that done for their learning? What has it done for your own learning as it as long time educators too?

Pamela Ruggerio 8:41

Right away if the easiest thing I notice is it's hard to ask them to put their cell phones away, even though that's like the school requirement in the inside. But when they're outside, it's pretty natural.

Ryan Kelsey 8:52

Yeah.

Pamela Ruggerio 8:52

Mm-hmm. They're already like distracted. Buy what's outside and just doing like kid things talking to each other. I mean, occasionally I will say, Hey, let's take out our phones and take some pictures, or you know, there's some cool apps that I ask them to engage in the garden with those, but for the most part, they are, they're just leaving the screens alone. And I think that's part of my favorite, one of my favorite things, especially in more recent years, just to see kids not depending on. Screen time for all their stimulation.

Ryan Kelsey 9:22

Yeah, for sure. Yeah. One, one thing that I noticed is that we do this unit where we go outside and paint on, we have picnic tables that were built by our construction trades program years ago. And they sit out there and we collect the vegetables or we collect flowers and they just sit and paint. But while they're doing that, I'm chopping up vegetables for them to eat and just bring'em around to the table. And what's funny is every year the kids say, why is this the best tasting cucumber I've ever had? And they know the answer is, it comes out of their mouth. They're like. Because I just picked it and I just cut this and I'm eating it. And like literally it's the they're seeing this happen where the grocery store, it's been on that shelf for days. And that I plant like these girls. There's a girl in your class, I remember she planted tomatoes for me last. Spring and when she came back in the fall, she was in my class and she's in the greenhouse holding these tomatoes and looking at her friend who was helping her. And they're like looking at each other like. We planted these tomatoes. That's cool. And they were tiny, you know?

Pamela Ruggerio 10:34

Yeah.

Ryan Kelsey 10:35

And now they're picking them and eating them. So that to me is like that realization that they can grow something and then it becomes something else.

Pamela Ruggerio 10:45

Yeah. It's, I agree with that because a lot of them are so disconnected from their food in particular. I mean, it's, that's a big theme in my environmental science class too. We talk about like, where does your food come from?

Jennifer Farrington 10:55

Mm-hmm.

Pamela Ruggerio 10:56

So much of it comes from other states or other countries. Yeah. And or, you know, I ask my, a lot of times I ask my kids at the beginning of this food union, where does your food come from? And a majority of them say, the grocery store. I said, what about before that? I don't know.

Jennifer Farrington 11:10

Mm-hmm.

Pamela Ruggerio 11:10

And it's like they forget that most of our food has to be grown. And I know that sounds so simple, but you're right. It's like once they start doing it, oh, there's this greater connection to it. So yeah, that's one part I really like. I, in addition to the other half of the garden. That biodiversity piece is just as important. And if they learn to love it, they'll take care of it. Mm-hmm. So I think just spending time in it and seeing all the visitors, you know, the insects and whatnot, and it's like, okay, now I feel like I'm gonna love this a little bit more and take care of it in the future. And that's. That's my ultimate goal, at least when it comes to educating them in environmental science.

Ryan Kelsey 11:48

I feel like, this is a little bit off topic from what you just said, but I feel like when you ask kids to go outside, at first they're really excited and then they get outside and they're gonna complain about it. It's too hot. And then the next day they're like, why aren't we going outside? I'm like, well, yesterday he said it was too hot. But I feel like. After a few days,

Pamela Ruggerio 12:07

they're fine. They adapt.

Ryan Kelsey 12:08

They adapt. And in fact if you're working on some project that you can't go outside, they're like, why aren't we going outside?

Pamela Ruggerio 12:14

No, I'm already getting a lot of that this week.

Ryan Kelsey 12:16

Yeah. Like we should be outside pretty

Pamela Ruggerio 12:18

wet though.

Ryan Kelsey 12:19

Yeah. Yeah. But I feel like, and once they're outside, they're thinking about those things. Like protecting that space. Mm-hmm. And it not just like protecting the world. I think at first a lot of people thought we were gonna build this and there's gonna be graffiti and it's gonna get destroyed. Yeah. And it might happen at some point in time, but I feel like right now, because you and I have 150 kids. You have 150 kids. They're protecting that space. Yeah. They have ownership over it, even though they might only be with me for a semester or you for a year.

Pamela Ruggerio 12:50

It's

Ryan Kelsey 12:50

theirs.

Pamela Ruggerio 12:50

Yeah, it's theirs. Which is interesting to say that, and I mean, no disrespect to any other. Classes that might visit, but ones that other classes that I've noticed that might visit it for a day and haven't invested in it will tend to leave trash behind and stuff. And I'm like, they just don't have the same investment as the ones who are like in it day to day. And it does bring up that bigger question about like. Whose job is it to take care of natural spaces? It's all of ours. It's not like, oh, just the people who get paid. So yeah.

Jennifer Farrington 13:19

And kind of what you're doing is taking, has taken off like you all are trendsetters at the district. I, and I don't know if it's,

Pamela Ruggerio 13:25

sounds like it in some ways,

Jennifer Farrington 13:26

I don't know if it started with you, with the outdoor classroom, but there's other schools in the district that are trying to create these outdoor spaces. Yeah. You know, the elementaries are trying to create like outdoor, hammocks with reading areas that kids can go and visit. So. How is the district, thinking about this sort of for like all students?

Ryan Kelsey 13:42

Well I know that Pam, you've been working with a lot of elementary school teachers, haven't you, on the green school stuff?

Pamela Ruggerio 13:47

Yeah, so, as part of the Michigan Green Schools, I'm actually on a committee called Michigan Green School Ambassadors in. One of the goals of that is to bring additional schools within the state to apply for green school membership or accreditation, I guess you could say. And so I had this idea this year like, Hey, why don't we get all of Davidson schools on board with that? So I reached out to James Eberling, who's our district science coordinator, and said, let's do this. And we tried to get a representative from each building in the district to come together and swap ideas. So this past year, with the exception of one school, but next year they're gonna do it. We went from having one Davison school. Apply and become a green school to all but one this last year. I'm really proud of that. In fact, as part of the the Michigan Ambassador Group, I found out that had, that one school also applied, we would've been the only the third district in Michigan to have all of our schools as Michigan green schools.

Jennifer Farrington 14:44

Wow.

Pamela Ruggerio 14:44

Yeah. So we're just a year away from that at this point. And, but it's simple. Just, it's just, I think the. Michigan Green Schools applying for that. Label isn't just about the label. I think it's like, okay, here's almost like a checklist of like, Hey, are our students, are they making sure they're recycling? Are they are as a building? Are we paying attention to our energy usage? Are we. Hey, all the little tiny things you do, we, there's two buildings now that are regularly composting. That is pretty incredible.

Ryan Kelsey 15:14

Yeah.

Pamela Ruggerio 15:15

I was really happy this year that we had a little debacle in all of Genesee County. I don't know if you're aware of this, that the. The paper dumpsters that were located all over this. Are you aware of this? I

Jennifer Farrington 15:26

did hear about this.

Pamela Ruggerio 15:27

Yeah. So the paper dumpsters that were a previously free slash a fundraiser for all nonprofits in Genesee County were no longer available. So if your listeners are like, where did the dumpsters go? It was. That, that was the, a countywide thing. So we approached our district and said, Hey, we have this challenge. We've been recycling for the, last few years. And they went ahead and found a way to bring dumpsters to the school that are now providing us with the means to now recycle additional things we couldn't before. So now we're gonna be able to recycle not only cardboard and paper, which we were doing. We're gonna be able to recycle metal plastic. And milk cartons. Right. So I think that's kind of one of my goals next year to maybe have like a more regular collection of milk cartons, even within our own school.

Ryan Kelsey 16:13

Yeah.

Pamela Ruggerio 16:14

But I'm really proud of the direction the district is going in terms of like, Hey, let's make this happen. And I think it's important too, to start. Working in these systems from a young age. So it's not like they come to the high school and they're like, whoa, why is everybody here doing it differently? You know, if it's a regular routine where you're getting in the habit of like, okay, my banana peel doesn't go in the trash, it goes in a compost, and then it's just natural. So I'm kinda excited to see how the future's gonna look for that. Yeah.

Jennifer Farrington 16:42

Yeah. Get some great plans underway. Yeah. So I think a lot of this is possible because of the partnerships that you all have created in community. So can you talk about how you've worked in partnership with local organizations?

Ryan Kelsey 16:54

Yeah I think we're lucky. We've applied for a lot of grants and we talked to a lot of people. We just had an event during the Flint Art Walk where. Our students created art around native animals and native plants, and we had like nine partners there from Genesee County Parks, the Flint River Watershed Sierra Club, TRO Unlimited. I could keep going on the D-N-R-D-N-R Conservation District M-D-H-H-S they're great. All of those people have. Helped us out in so many ways. So if we have a problem in our greenhouse, I will call Laura Lynn over at edible Flint, and she's like, well, Ryan, you're doing it wrong. Here's how you gotta do this.

Pamela Ruggerio 17:33

Yeah.

Ryan Kelsey 17:34

And we've taken the kids to their garden. We've taken kids to all over the place. Well, even like, here's a great partner. Factory two is a great partner for us because we make t-shirts promoting our salmon in the classroom thing, and I have my high school kids design the shirt and the Trout Unlimited guys know how to print. And Factory two lets us use their space. And so the kids got a chance to not only design. A shirt promoting salmon in the classroom, but they got to follow through and screen print those shirts. And then we're selling those shirts now. So, that, those are one, some of those partnerships that we just gotta, we just reach out to people and ask. Mm-hmm. And. Nine outta 10 times, people are like, yeah, what can I do? How can I help?

Pamela Ruggerio 18:20

All they can say is no. Yeah, and then you're still in the same position you were, so

Ryan Kelsey 18:24

Yeah.

Pamela Ruggerio 18:24

I all, I ask way more often than I should probably.

Ryan Kelsey 18:26

Yeah. Well, and sometimes you ask like, the township, Davison township parks is super helpful. And they said, Hey, we've got some, sap that we are tapping our maple trees. And I like to show the kids the end process. Next year we're gonna actually use one of their boilers on campus and we're gonna do that. Oh, wow. But I show them the end process. I give them some sap, which looks like water tastes a little sweet. And then I show them the finished project. But anyways, the township was like, yeah, we've got these taps. Come get the the sap. Oh my God. It was. Buckets. And buckets. And buckets and it was like too much. But next year, if we can do that at school, And actually I just worked out a partnership with Thompson Elementary School because when I went and collected the SAP during my lunch hour, the elementary school kids were there.

Pamela Ruggerio 19:15

Oh, no way.

Ryan Kelsey 19:16

They didn't get to see the process, they just got to see the tapping. So next year the plan is. They will get to participate. My high school, our high school kids will get to participate and we'll all be there on the township property. Which again, now is such a great partnership for

Pamela Ruggerio 19:34

us. Right. Two partners in particular in Genesee County that tend to come through a lot. Former Nicole Ferguson at former, I mean, I sing her praises all day long. She's great. Yes she's come through so many times. I mean. My classes will participate in quite a few different field trips. One that we're actually taking our cla our joint classes on not too long from now to release some salmon. But then the second half of the day it, in collaboration with the Flint River Watershed Coalition. They've, they run a program called Green, which is, are you familiar with it? Yeah. So it's chemical water testing and they've been really good about like, Hey, we're gonna do some fundraising, get some. Supplies to you. So just those two alone, they're, I feel really lucky. Like I talked to other schools in other districts and counties and they're like, we don't have anything like that. So that's an ongoing year to year thing in terms of the funding with the Flint River Watershed Coalition. But right now I just can't sing their praises enough. I'm so grateful to them.

Ryan Kelsey 20:32

Yeah.

Pamela Ruggerio 20:32

So.

Ryan Kelsey 20:34

Well, and it, and like I, like we said, we, if a school's looking to do something like this you just start asking and then, if sometimes people will just connect you to somebody else, but Yes, but I know that like through our partnership with the community foundation, like there are so many things that, that in our garden that are funded through what you guys have helped, but Right. One, one of them is like the shade. That we have in there. And then because now we have this shade space, other people have come to me and said, Hey, I have this other shade that I don't need anymore because there's a little mouse hole in it. Like, I see you have one.

Pamela Ruggerio 21:11

Yeah. Give it to us.

Ryan Kelsey 21:12

Do you want another one? And like, yes. Let, and I think that, again, people just wanna be helping kids.

Pamela Ruggerio 21:18

Yeah. And oh, I should, how can we forget the Davison Education Foundation? Yep. Wow. Oh, that's great. Yep. They've paid, they've come through over the last few years, not only for money for the garden, but even most recently. They supplied bins for our recycling collection within the high school and the alternative ed building. So thank you. If any of you're listening, you're some of our favorite people.

Ryan Kelsey 21:40

And I think I, I think for myself, speaking for myself, one of the reasons that I'm comfortable asking is that I'm a big fan of the Flint Art Walk. Being an art teacher all these years and years ago, I wanted my students to be a part of it. At that time I was looking for buildings that were vacant on Saginaw Street, and I just found out who owned that building and contact them. And every single person but one, said, yeah how can I help the kids? And I, through that process, I think I realized that people are like, yeah I mean, for them it's a win-win if you have a vacant space. And in fact. All of the spaces that we have used in the past are now like full on At one point in time I was like, man, we, that was such a good space. I'm sad this restaurant went in there. I know but it's great for business to have a restaurant down there. But I think we, right now our partnership is with the a hundred K ideas. Keston is the manager in that building, and we've used his space I think four or five times. I was gonna say

Pamela Ruggerio 22:41

at least four times.

Ryan Kelsey 22:42

Man, it's so great. And the kids go in there and they're like, wow. Like, what is this building? What do people do here? Even when they come to Flint, they're like, Hey what is this? You know? There, there's, it's unique. It's unique for them. Yeah. So

Jennifer Farrington 22:56

you had such a wonderful turnout at Art Walk and such talented artists. Thank you. In your classes. So I've just been thinking about your, you've worked really hard to connect nature and art together. Why has that been important for you?

Ryan Kelsey 23:08

Well, I think it's important because as, yes, I'm an artist, but I spend a lot of time outside in the woods hiking, paddle boarding and so. I want to take care of nature. I want to grow things. I want to celebrate animals and plants. And so what I saw is this a good opportunity to connect to things I really love and when kids have the opportunity to. Paint an animal. I used to do like just an animal, and then I was like, oh, why don't you do your pet? You know? And then I realized like, what if I just took a step and said, it has to only be a Native Michigan animal. No more tigers, no more Labrador retrievers.

Pamela Ruggerio 23:55

Yeah,

Ryan Kelsey 23:55

I thought it was gonna be a little rough, but. Literally everybody is excited about, they're like, can I do a raccoon? Is a raccoons native to Michigan? Yeah. Look in your backyard. The

24:05

conversations,

Pamela Ruggerio 24:06

it begins like, wait a minute. Yeah. All these things from here are not,

Ryan Kelsey 24:09

yeah,

Jennifer Farrington 24:10

and it connects to the work that you're doing. Absolutely.

Pamela Ruggerio 24:12

And

Ryan Kelsey 24:12

teaching environmental science for sure. Well, and one fun thing that. I have kids do, as you know, as they're doing research, it seems like the past two years kids have done animals that were once native to Michigan, such as a mastodon.

Jennifer Farrington 24:26

Okay.

Ryan Kelsey 24:26

And then we talk about like, you know,

Jennifer Farrington 24:28

what happened,

Ryan Kelsey 24:29

what happens to the mastodons? And, you know, if you know, in Lapeer, like a few miles away from here, there's. They found MAs on bones and this conversation is like, wait, like, and then we're talking about the change in the climate and we're talking about all these things that

Pamela Ruggerio 24:43

you're my hero

Ryan Kelsey 24:44

probably Pam's talking about too. But yeah. But and I think, you know what, the saddest thing that I do, I'm sorry for the podcast listeners, but this is the saddest thing that I do. No. So, so we do warm up drawings all the time during this unit. So we'll warm up with a drawing of a black bear and there's just five minutes. They're all working on their own little. Paintings, but for five minutes we're getting warmed up and so I'll put a a after the warmup drawing, I have a slide of. This is the historical range of black bears. And this is where black bears are now.

Pamela Ruggerio 25:15

Yeah.

Ryan Kelsey 25:15

Oh. And they're like, wait, there was black bears like way down here. I'm like yeah. But now there's this little speck right here, you know? And they're like no. And we do that with elk, and we do it with moose and. Just having those conversations. And there might be kids that disagree and they might say, Hey, it's way better that we have roads and houses everywhere. Hmm. But there's probably some kids that are like, no, like me. Like me. I would say, let's go back to like,

Pamela Ruggerio 25:40

I know

Ryan Kelsey 25:40

more swamp land in Michigan. Stop draining all of these swamps.

Pamela Ruggerio 25:43

But this is how you get them to invest in solutions.

Ryan Kelsey 25:47

Yeah.

Pamela Ruggerio 25:47

To get us there.

Ryan Kelsey 25:48

Right.

Pamela Ruggerio 25:49

To say, okay, now I'm gonna make in the future, I'm not gonna be upset. When I see people are putting, you know what, there, when there's a specific season, I'm allowed to hunt something or I'm only allowed to fish so many fish before I have to throw'em back, because now they're like, okay, I get it. Yeah, I understand. I'm protecting it.

Ryan Kelsey 26:06

Yeah.

Pamela Ruggerio 26:07

So, yes, you're my hero. No, I say that too. Okay. I'm gonna sing your praises for a minute because I think it's a natural fit for at least in Ryan's classes because he. His, he is passionate about the outdoors and he's passionate about art, so I think you need that in the classroom or otherwise. Students see right through it. It's like, we know you just showed up to teach and like leave if that's the case, but if it's your passion, it's like, all right, I can get on board with this too. So proud of you.

Ryan Kelsey 26:35

Thank you.

Pamela Ruggerio 26:36

Thank

Jennifer Farrington 26:36

you. It's a great job, both of you. So what's one thing each of you hopes continues to grow, kind of literally or figuratively in this work, kind of as you're thinking, kind of moving forward?

Pamela Ruggerio 26:48

Well, that's a big question.

Jennifer Farrington 26:50

Yeah.

Ryan Kelsey 26:51

I can go first.

Pamela Ruggerio 26:52

Yeah, go first.

Ryan Kelsey 26:52

So I think we've been trying and I mean, we get it. It's super hard. For teachers to commit time to add this to the curriculum, especially when, I mean, I wrote my curriculum based on the state curriculum, but I have a lot of leeway. The kids have to do a painting. I make them do a painting of a Michigan. Native species, so I can make that happen. A math teacher might not be able to make that happen.

Pamela Ruggerio 27:19

Yeah.

Ryan Kelsey 27:19

Right. And a science teacher who teaches chemistry might not be able to make it fit. I get that. But I think that after I'm gone, or next week or next year, I would love it if other teachers found a way to get their kids engaged with the outdoors, whether it's, through what we're already doing or taking it a step further and adding to that. That's what I really want is other teachers doing that.

Pamela Ruggerio 27:46

I mean, so I, I'm not gonna lie, I lose sleep at night. Not gonna exaggerate even a little bit about. Just the future of nature and biodiversity. And so in my head that's literally where I'm like, this is my passion, is I feel like if the same thing, if I was gone tomorrow, I hope the students who sit in my classroom, even if they change their behaviors slightly, I always emphasize the, if we all do a little. We can make big changes. We don't have to change everything overnight. Especially when it comes to like conversations around sustainability and just changing habits that have been ingrained in our society as normal. I mean, back to the lawn. I mean, I will, I hope. Right. I hope your listeners will hear me, but a lawn, as we know, it provides no biodiversity. It, it covers. We, a lot of times we use artificial fertilizers and pesticides and for what? Yeah. Mm-hmm. We get nothing. We don't get food out of it. It doesn't save BioD, and those are the conversations. I'm like, Hey, let's just question why we're doing the things we're doing. Is it really helping anyone in the long run? Mm-hmm. I think that's hopefully what I think they get out of a lot of these conversations is just, I have some hope for the future when I look at students that are like, all right, I can make a few changes here and there. Mm-hmm. I'm invested. Or man, the one that like gives me the chills and I just, oh, I think to the handful of students will. Will come up to me and say, Hey, guess what? My major's gonna be in college. I've already decided. And they're like, it's going to be in environmental science or something related to that field and just gives me so much hope for the future. So mm-hmm. Not that I wanna steal everybody from all the other cool, you know, jobs, but I'm like, if that's that, if that's what I've inspired I think I've done a good job. Yeah. So.

Jennifer Farrington 29:42

Yeah. I love that. Thank you both for being here today. Wanna offer a chance for you to share kind of anything else that we haven't talked about today or that you want to? I'm gonna plug

Pamela Ruggerio 29:52

Mayo. I coincidentally wore this shirt. It wasn't,'cause I was like, so, which,

Jennifer Farrington 29:57

tell us what that is.

Pamela Ruggerio 29:58

So Mayo is the Michigan Alliance for Environmental and Outdoor Educators, of which I I don't know if you're familiar with them, but I am a recently elected board member. And the reason I bring it up, thank you very much. The reason I bring it up is in October we are holding our annual conference here in Flint.

Jennifer Farrington 30:16

Yeah.

Pamela Ruggerio 30:16

Which I'm really proud of. So it'll be the first time that it'll be in Flint and. Could be decades before it returns. So, anyone who is an environmental or outdoor educator that is gonna be around in October 1st through the fourth and wants to attend it would be wonderful to have you. But I am pretty proud to say that like we're in the midst of the planning and it's gonna be so, just ingrained with like all the cool stuff we've even mentioned, like all these groups that said, Hey, I'll hold a session or we're gonna have. We're just gonna have some fun in Flint that weekend. So,

Jennifer Farrington 30:47

and is it for anyone to attend? Is it just educators?

Pamela Ruggerio 30:50

It's primarily, I would say close to half their membership are non-formal educators that are invested in environment, environmental, or outdoor ed. And then about half of the members are formal educators of all ages. So anyone could attend. I guess why not? So hopefully we have some good news to come out of that next year. Maybe we'll have to reach out to you and tell you how it goes.

Jennifer Farrington 31:16

Yeah. Can't wait to hear more.

Pamela Ruggerio 31:17

Yeah.

Jennifer Farrington 31:18

All right, Ryan and Pam, thank you both for joining us today and for the remarkable work that you're doing to connect students to the land, to each other, and to their community. For listeners who wanna learn more about the Davison Community Fund or the work of the Community Foundation of Greater Flint visit cfg.org. This has been Philanthropy Speaks. I'm Jen Farrington. We will be back next time with another conversation about the people and ideas strengthening Flint and Genesee County.