Environmental Studies Student Takes Garden to New Heights

Threaded on the east side of campus behind the Center for Children and Families, Cal State San Marcos’ garden usually goes unnoticed by students.

“When I came to San Marcos, I was shocked when I found out that there was a 7,000 square foot garden space,” said Hali Scott, an environmental studies student.

Scott was first introduced to the CSUSM garden in 2021. At the time, there were few plants due to the pandemic. With 15 years of gardening experience and knowledge of holistic medicine, Scott knew he could help revitalize the space into something great for students.

“I remember I would be working in the yard for eight hours and I wouldn’t see anyone come in,” Scott said. “My goal is to have more students who know about the garden. I want them to feel comfortable to stop. I’ve worked in other community gardens before and seen lonely areas completely transformed, and that’s what I wanted to do at CSUSM.

Scott helped bring the vegetable garden back to life, and now there is more produce than she knows what to do with.

“Over the summer, I was basically throwing pumpkins into people’s cars because the garden grew so big,” Scott said.

Since January 2022, Scott has been a garden manager, helping to ensure that the space is engaging and educational for the campus community. Scott worked hand in hand with the The Environmental Stewards Association (ESA) to help rebuild the garden since the pandemic.

There are about 30 members in the association today, and students participate in weekly meetings during U-Hour. ESA has built a tight-knit community of students who care and work to improve the garden.

“I saw Hali put 110% of herself into this garden,” said Raul Ricardez, a history student who is an ESA member and also manages the garden’s native pollinator section. “It’s been great working together with her to build the ESA community and bounce ideas off each other.”

Ricardez is one of the many students at ESA who have a special connection to the garden. It became an outlet for Ricardez to honor his father, who died during the pandemic.

“My father has always had a connection to the earth and plants, and I didn’t know he was planting those seeds in me,” Ricardez said. “That’s what got me started with gardening, and Hali taught me so much more.”

Ricardez, Scott and ESA worked together to be resources to provide the garden due to lack of funding. Scott is asking local nurseries for small donations and hopes to create more fundraising opportunities for the garden before he graduates this fall.

“It was so nice to find a community that cares about gardening as much as I do,” Scott said. “It’s so rewarding to say I can feed people.

“I’m 30 years old, and I had 15 years to be able to learn about plants. I’m trying to find my way in life. I think I want to be a sustainability consultant after I graduate. But now I think I’m going to do something with gardening and the plants.”