Garden Crew

Every student at Warren Wilson College works.
What work crew will you choose?

Students stand in the Warren Wilson College Garden, located outside of Asheville, North Carolina.

The Garden crew works collaboratively to grow a wide array of vegetables, herbs, and fruits to provide for the Warren Wilson dining halls and community members.

There are also sub-crews of the garden.
Herb crew runs and operates an on-campus apothecary that provides accessible and affordable herbal care to the Warren Wilson Community and beyond. They learn plant identification, medicinal properties of plants, folk tradition, product making, and cultivation/foraging techniques. Herb crew also hosts workshops to teach the community.
Bee crew works to care for the Warren Wilson Apiary and educate the community about honey bees and native pollinators. Bee Crew makes products from the hive such as infused honey and beeswax candles.

A Herb Crew student uses a mortar and pestle to grind some herbs in the herb cabin.

Student Leadership Opportunities

  • Garden Crew Leader: The garden leader is responsible for supervising the general crew, leading garden projects, and planning events/long-term projects.
  • Community Supported Agriculture(CSA) Manager: The CSA manager coordinates the weekly CSA in the fall semester as well as the thanksgiving CSA, and spring planning for the summer CSA. This student will work with the manager to test the implementation of the online platform, GrazeCart for some sales, communicate with customers, and handle weekly CSA distribution.
  • Wholesale Manager: The wholesale manager will coordinate all wholesale sales and events.
A student kneels to plant produce at the garden

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.

Garden Crew Learning Goals

  • Business practices of a small organic farm, including:
    • Managing a CSA and seedling sales
    • Managing wholesale and community market sales
    • General allocation of garden resources
  • Regenerative agriculture practices and systems
  • Poultry husbandry
  • Proper tool use for both farming and infrastructure maintenance
  • Tractor operation and maintenance