In the gated field behind St. Peter Claver Catholic School in Tampa, a mosaic of colorful concrete rocks creates a walkway. On either side are blueberries, bananas, figs, pineapple, sugarcane, potatoes and aloe growing in raised square beds.
It’s a learning garden built by the University of Tampa chapter of Roots and Shoots, which is an international program started by Jane Goodall. She's the English woman who, in the 1960s, famously discovered that chimpanzees use tools, eat meat and have strong emotional bonds.
"Everywhere I went, I met young people who seemed to have lost hope. They all said more or less the same thing: ‘We feel like this because we think you've compromised our future.’ And so that led into our program for youth, Roots and Shoots,” Goodall said in a promotional video.
The program empowers young people from elementary school through college to affect positive change in their communities, and there are more than 650 of these projects known in Florida, alone.
University of Tampa Chapter
Eamon Hennessy was UT’s Roots and Shoots president before graduating in May with a bachelor's degree in marine science and biology.
Not only did he meet Goodall when she came to speak at the Tampa Theater back in March, but he also interviewed her on stage.
"That was like one of the best days of my whole life,” he said smiling, overlooking the garden he helped maintain.
Hennessy said he hopes the school children learn about gardening and sustainability through the college students’ ongoing project.
“When you can act locally in this way, then you can think, 'Well, if everyone was doing the things that I'm doing, then obviously this can have a huge global impact,’” he said.
That's something he learned from Goodall. He also said he's walking away from Roots and Shoots less shy and able to connect with people.
"The more that I work with other people who have different perspectives than me, different backgrounds, I've come to learn things that you know, I never would have imagined," he said.
Indi-ED chapter
About 20 miles away in St. Petersburg, younger students are sitting in a circle all together on couches, chairs and the rug in the common area of their school brainstorming what community projects they want to focus on next year.
Indi-ED is a nonprofit K-8 school with just 37 kids -- every one of them a member of its Roots and Shoots group.
Teacher Rachel Pethé is writing down the kids’ ideas on a big white sheet of paper and helping them vote on a topic. She's been facilitating Roots and Shoots groups for about a decade.
"The most rewarding part about my job is to witness minds that are completely open to all possibilities,” she said.
Last year, her students printed an informative activity booklet called Fishy Friends Foundation on how pollution affects local marine life with help from a micro-grant through the nonprofit Jane Goodall Institute. There’s even a pledge in the back of the book for kids to sign agreeing to consider the environment when making life decisions.
"So that was what they came up with … completely 100% kid-owned," she said.
Passion Projects
Grace Dicus-Harrison, 11, made a picture game within the workbook that presents some facts about mangroves and tasks the reader to identify certain items like a sea snail, sand dollar or bivalve shell.
She said she loves animals, so they are tied into her ideal future project.
"A game or some sort of thing to teach kids about, like endangered animals and why they're endangered and how people play a huge part in endangerment," said Dicus-Harrison.
Sebastian Jones, 10, raised his hand frequently throughout the ideation process.
He said before coming to Indi-ED or participating in Roots and Shoots, he hadn’t thought about the environment that much, but now he gets to share with the people in his life, like his parents, about what he’s learning.
“They were very surprised on all the things and a lot of the times they had no clue because a lot of times people used to think that, ‘Oh, kids don't know anything,’ but as you like enlighten that, then you can learn that they can teach you a lot of stuff, too,” he said.
Jones’ “ultimate project to help the environment” would be to find alternatives for products like paper to stop deforestation.
And Sarah Callahan, 9, just wants to educate people on how to keep planet Earth clean and “make the world a better place." She incorporates what she’s learned through Roots and Shoots into her everyday tasks.
“I've just kind of changed, like now whenever I go out and just walk my dog, I’ll bring a trash bag and pick up some trash, and it's just really impacted... my daily life," Callahan said.
It’s important for people to learn about the environment early in life, said 10-year-old Piper Wallace.
“Kids, usually, they always want to help when they're younger. And then as you get older, you kind of step away from it because you have other things to do, but I think if you start young then you'll be connected to it throughout your whole life,” she said.
Wallace is most interested in projects that connect "the animal community environment and the human community, like planting more coral reefs and more mangroves."
Tampa Base Camp
These young people will now have more resources for their projects and ideas right here in the Tampa Bay region. The Goodall Institute plans to start Roots and Shoots base camps in Tampa, Atlanta and Los Angeles.
"We will have a staff person based in Tampa from the local community … so they can serve more directly the Roots and Shoots members and potential members in the area, because our national staff is based in Washington DC,” said Mary Ford, Senior Director for Roots and Shoots in the U.S.
They'll have a growing presence over the coming year, she said, through a council of volunteers and community partnerships. But there are no plans for a physical facility so far, as they can use some of their members' spaces.
Back at Indi-ED, teacher Rachel Pethé said she thinks people today are hungry for conversation without feeling so guarded and divided, and she thinks this base camp will take the Socratic conversations the children are having in the classroom out into the world.
"The kids and attention being drawn to what the kids are doing will spread in the community among adults," Pethé said.
And that connectedness Roots and Shoots brings is at the heart of Jane Goodall’s mission.
"Every single day we live, we can make a difference. And together with everybody making a difference, we can change the world," Goodall said in her promo video.
