Hope Guardenier Founding Director Hope founded The Farm Education Collaborative in 2008 with 2 fellow educators and moms. Since 2009 she has been gardening and farming with campers, including her own sons, at the Farm and Garden Camp at Hampshire College. Hope is also the Executive Director of School Sprouts Educational Gardens and has been instrumental in designing and implementing over 15 teaching gardens throughout the Pioneer Valley. She works to realize a vision of outdoor classrooms that allow for hands-on learning and meaningful work. Hope has a M.S. in Environmental Science from Antioch University and additional experience in curriculum development, program coordination, and over two decades of teaching in the outdoors. She is passionate about connecting youth of all ages to their food and bringing learning to life. She and her family live and garden in Belchertown.
Cara Michelle Silverberg Farm and Garden Camp Director Cara has been working in the field of place-based and experiential education for over ten years. She attended Grinnell College for two years and then Prescott College where she designed a B.A. in bioregional studies with an emphasis in environmental education. Cara has developed curriculum for and presented at numerous institutions, organizations and conferences, including Smith College, the University of Massachusetts, and Hazon and Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center. Cara is passionate about training leaders and facilitating community experiences that allow people to explore and express themselves, their relationships with the earth, and their relationships with each other. She is currently pursuing an M.A. in Peacebuilding and Conflict Transformation at the School for International Training in Brattleboro, Vermont, focusing on interfaith youth leadership through the lenses of sustainability and spirituality.
Molly Sauvain Garden Specialist Molly is a long-time gardener, educator, and lover of food, fields and sun. She has a B.A. in Gender Studies from Smith College and is currently a graduate student at Antioch University working towards her Masters in Elementary Education. She is passionate about teaching that shapes critical thinkers who wonder at the world, and ask big questions. Whether her classroom is inside or outside, she is interested in embodied, meaningful, justice-oriented learning. She is excited to grow, eat and celebrate in the garden this summer!
