Get Involved

Work with Us

The Holistic Garden offers several paid opportunities for currently enrolled Rice undergraduate and graduate students to work in the Garden. See below for more details.

Student Garden Worker Program

Student Garden Workers are the primary stewards of the Garden and oversee the majority of the care and maintenance of the Holistic Garden. Tasks include but are not limited to:

  • Planting and crop production
  • Harvesting produce
  • Selling produce to Dining Services
  • Weeding and maintaining the Garden’s appearance
  • Pest management
  • Composting
  • Tending to our chickens
  • Assisting with plant sales, workshops, and special events

Garden Workers also have the opportunity to lead special projects and have a voice in shaping the development of the Garden's public-facing programs.

Garden Workers determine their own schedules and have a good deal of flexibility. The average weekly commitment is 4-6 hours per week. The minimum weekly commitment is one 2-hour shift per week.

Summer Internship in Sociohorticulture

The Rice Holistic Garden is pleased to announce we are accepting applications for our Summer Internship program. This program provides selected Rice students an opportunity to conduct hands-on research through a 10-week internship in sociohorticulture, a concept that refers to the social, environmental, and health benefits of gardening. Interns work 15-20 hours/week and can earn up to $2000 over the 10-week period, which runs from May 16-22, 2022. In addition to learning basic gardening and sustainable agriculture techniques, interns will visit local farms and community gardens; meet with community leaders and professionals working in food, renewable energy, and related industries; and propose and execute an independent research project. Open to graduates and undergraduates. We are especially seeking students with interests in ecology, environmental studies, nutrition and public health, urban planning, cooking and food education, science education, food policy and economics, food writing or photography, food business and entrepreneurship, or food and environmental justice. More information can be found in this PDF

To apply, please email a cover letter indicating your interest in the program and how it relates to your academic or career pursuits, a résumé or CV, and 3 references to Dr. Joe Novak and Dr. Jade Hagan at garden@rice.edu.

The priority deadline is February 14, but applications will be accepted through March 1. Applications for the Summer 2022 Internship are now closed.

Courses

Several undergraduate courses at Rice offer students the opportunity to learn about the benefits of community gardens and gain hands-on gardening experience.

BIOS 204 Environmental Sustainability: The Design and Practice of Community Agriculture

Instructor: Joe Novak

BIOS 204 introduces students to the fundamentals of urban agriculture, with an emphasis on community gardening and the use of organic gardening techniques. Weekly lectures involve discussions of crop production practices, community gardening, and urban agriculture. For the lab portion of the course, students participate in managing the Betty and Jacob Friedman Holistic Garden and assist with various garden-related activities.

Course Trips to the Garden

Many Rice courses have incorporated visits to the Holistic Garden into their syllabi. The list below represents a sampling of such courses.

  • FWIS 141: Literature and Environment (Jade Hagan)
  • FWIS 145: Food and Environmental Justice (Jade Hagan)
  • ENGL/ENST 368: Literature and the Environment (Bren Ram)
  • FWIS 175: Surveillance, Security, and Society (Jessica Bray)
  • FWIS 174: Sounding the City (Andrew Klein)
  • FWIS 114: Waste, Trash, Pollution (Katie Ulrich)
  • ENST 100: Environment, Culture & Society (Joe Campana & Sophie Moore)
  • EEPS/BIOS 495: Environmental Science (Carrie Masiello & Amy Dunham)
  • ENST 205: Reckoning with the Anthropocene (Kelly McKisson & John Crum)
  • ENST 210: Sustainable Futures (Richard Johnson & Larry Toups)

Clubs

Rice Urban Agriculture

Rice Urban Agriculture (RUA) aims to teach students how to garden through hands-on experience. RUA members learn how to market and manage produce, develop skills to live a healthy lifestyle, and interact with and support the greater Houston community.

RUA meets in the Holistic Garden on a weekly basis. During the Fall 2022 semester, members and interested students meet on Fridays from 4-6 pm.

For more information about RUA, follow us on Instagram @riceholisticgarden or contact the club’s officers, Alex Cho (President), Graham Waterstraat (External Vice President), and Isabelle Chang (Internal Vice President).

Beekeeping Club

We are in the process of developing a club for those interested in bees and beekeeping. For more information, please contact the club’s founding members, Andrew Miller, Bruno Moscoso, and Trinity Eimer.

Volunteer

The Garden staff welcomes volunteers to help with all aspects of the Garden’s maintenance—including soil preparation and composting, plant propagation and planting, pruning and training plants, fertilization and irrigation, weeding, pest and disease control, and harvesting and preparing produce for delivery to the Rice serveries.

For Fall 2022, volunteers should plan to regularly attend one of the following volunteer times each week:

  • Sundays 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m
  • Wednesdays 4:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Volunteers should arrive punctually, adhere to the rules of the garden, and wear appropriate clothing—such as close-toed shoes, sunscreen, hat, and gloves—to protect themselves from the weather and hazards of gardening.

Orientation for new volunteers will be held during the first 30 minutes of their first session.