Seed Minkin
After graduating from Ohio University, Seed Minkin ’12 ’15M moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to continue working in the field of environmental and sustainability education.
Minkin earned a B.A. in Sociology and minor in Plant Biology from the College of Arts & Sciences and a certificate in Environmental Studies and M.S. in Environmental Studies from the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs.
Minkin currently works for Education Outside, a non-profit organization based in San Francisco that hosts garden-based science teachers in public elementary schools. Minkin has been building a learning garden on top of asphalt, teaching science-based lessons to 517 elementary school students, and continuing their professional learning development with a team of 55 garden educators.
The Best Part
Minkin’s favorite part of the job is watching the students at Robert Louis Stevenson Elementary School nurture relationships with the garden—holding worms, harvesting veggies, drawing their favorite plants, and just enjoying digging in the dirt. Minkin also loves opportunities to collaborate with the community. One of Minkin’s most valued accomplishments was planting 12 street trees outside the school as part of a collaboration with Friends of the Urban Forest and the Abraham Lincoln High School Green Academy.
Seed Minkin
OHIO Experience
Minkin’s OHIO experiences instilled in them a passion for the environment, stewardship, education, community collaboration, and social justice. Minkin explains that in addition to the courses, it was the opportunities to engage beyond the classroom at OHIO—undergraduate sociology internships, Provost undergraduate and Friends of India research experiences, common experience project and sustainability planning committee, cross-disciplinary university and community partnerships—that prepared Minkin for today’s work.
In particular, Minkin’s involvement with the Ohio University Learning Garden was monumental for personal and professional development. It was there that Minkin nurtured a fondness for garden-based science education and had their first experiences organizing educational opportunities for the OHIO and Athens community.
“The balance of support and openness from OHIO professors and staff enabled me to dream big, be creative, and weave my interests into my work,” Minkin says. “I am grateful to be following my passions and serving my communities.”
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