New School Year, New VT First Fellow!

It’s hard to believe it’s already September – and even harder to believe with 96 degrees headed our way tomorrow.  Nevertheless, campuses are once again a whirlwind of activity and we have piles and piles of updates for everyone, including this one here!

For the past two years, Vermont First has hosted a UVM Food Systems Graduate Student for a year-long fellowship. This graduate student does the critical behind-the-scenes work on our detailed local purchasing tracking system, is a member of the Vermont First Advisory Board, and this year will be very involved in planning for our very first Taking Root Student Symposium (much much more to come on this exciting development).

We couldn’t be more excited to announce that Ann Chiarenzelli is our 2018-19 Fellow.  Read on to learn a little more about our newest team member, in her own words! Welcome, Ann!

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I graduated in 2016 with a B.S. in Environmental Psychology from St. Lawrence University. My passion for regenerative agriculture began when I volunteered at Bittersweet, a small diversified farm and continued on to intern with GardenShare, a food security non-profit. Over the past year, I served as an AmeriCorps VISTA at Cornell Cooperative Extension of Clinton County in New York as the 4-H STEM Educator and Outreach VISTA. There, I worked to form curriculum in Animal Science, Environmental Science, Permaculture and more. This year, I am excited to pursue a graduate degree in Food Systems at UVM and be a Fellow with Vermont First.