Farm Crew
Every student at Warren Wilson College works.
What work crew will you choose?
The Farm Crew is as old as the College itself – cultivating student leaders, strong work ethics, and the Swannanoa Valley since 1894. National leaders in sustainable agriculture, the Farm Crew manages over 275 rotationally grazed, crop rotated, hillside-to-bottomland, and agroecological acres.
Broken into five sub-crews – General, Cattle, Sheep, Pig, and Marketing/Business – the experiences on the Farm Crew are as diverse as they are deep. Whether you’re a future vet, farm manager, agronomist, resilient agriculture lobbyist, lawyer, or advocate, the Farm Crew is the perfect incubator.
Why Work Crews?
Part of your work experience is reflection, helping ensure that you achieve both your own educational goals as well as our Common Learning Outcomes. These distinguish our Work Program, giving it focus and relevancy that set it apart from a federal work-study or your average part-time job. Each crew in the Work Program identifies crew-specific goals as well. These outline skills and abilities your supervisor will teach you during the semester.
Our Common Learning Outcomes
- Professionalism & Work Ethic: accountability, effective work habits, punctuality, dependability, time management, integrity, and commitment to the well-being of the community.
- Critical Thinking and Problem Solving: working with available resources to creatively address issues and solve problems, and gaining confidence to make decisions.
- Communication: the ability to convey and receive information effectively with intentionality, honesty, and confidence in both speech and writing.
- Collaboration & Teamwork: actively collaborate with peers to achieve common goals, Distribute labor fairly, and hold each other accountable as committed members of a group.
- Civic Identity: understanding your active influence within the community and how your decisions directly impact the work around you.
Farm Crew Learning Goals
- Caring for, feeding, and moving animals
- Planting and harvesting corn, barley , and hay crops
- Fence repair
- Renovating and restoring farm buildings
- Maintenance of the farm’s tractors and equipment
- Marketing naturally-raised meats and other products sold locally each year
- Mastery of current sustainable agriculture techniques
- Crop and pasture management, on-farm experimentation,
- Veterinary experience: delivering animals, giving shots, diagnosing and solving health problems, and administering medicine