Image provided by: West Linn High School; West Linn, OR
About The amplifier. (West Linn, Oregon) 1921-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 1, 2009)
ir 2009 Features exchange students would always think to stay in America." Biançardi cultivates small business, sells to gourmet restaurants C alley L athrop Age: 15 Grade: junior Host Family: Stroum Speaks: Chinese, English, Korean, and a little Japanese School differencess: "School, education and food are very different here." According to Lee, everything is much bigger in America and the school ages are very different. "Middle school is for ages 14-16, high school is for ages 17-19 and the universities are ages 20 and over." H obbies: Lee enjoys playing the piano, and has been playing since she was nine years old. Favorite subject: Reason for com ing to West Linn: "I hoped to learn American culture." Age: 17 Grade: senior Host Fam ily: Teramura Host Student: Rachel, junior Speaks: Spanish, English, French School differencess: "Nearly everything is different." According to Gonzales- Morillas, there are no lockers in the school, plus the teachers have to move to different rooms throughout the day and the students stay in one class. H obbies: "Music. I like photography, dance and traveling" Favorite Subject: Photography, Biology Reason for com ing to West Linn: "I wanted to learn American culture, and improve my English." Photos by Libby Kara and Mark Poppert enges of administrative roles This is Marten's fifteenth year in education; Martens previously taught English for 12. years and was an assistant principal at Tualatin High School for three. Aside from work, Marten spends a great deal of time with his family. He has been married for four years, and has a ten month-old baby. According to Martens, his favorite part of the job so far has been getting to know the students and the school. Freeborn, in her first year in an administrative position, is especially interested in seeing her previous students once again and watch them growT into adults. She worked as an instructional coordinator for the last three years at Rosemont Ridge Middle School and taught for 16 years, beginning with kindergarten and extending to Rosemont and Athey Creek middle schools. Freeborn's own high school experience in Alaska was very positive. She has two children, Kade and Reese, who currently attend Stafford Primary School. The entire family is active in sports; Kade and Reese both play football and soccer, respectively, as well as basketball. Freeborn has participated in marathons for eight Freeborn mostly works with freshman and incoming eighth graders, as well as aiding teachers in their first, second or third year of teaching. According to Freeborn, she tries to be a helpful aid to teachers in and outside of the classroom. Both Martens and Freeborn encourage students to become involved outside the classroom participating in extra-curricular activities, and most importantly, to graduate. Freeborn also stressed the importance of friendship and believes the coming school year will be an "amazing and powerful one." Lou Bailey, principal, agreed, "I think we can expect continued academic excellence, an increase in school spirit and a positive attitude." Certainly, with the addition of Martens and Freeborn, that looks like a strong possibility. 9 Ever w ondered w hat the m e a n in g b e h in d th o s e "G io v a n n i's G a rd e n " T- sh irts is? T h ese colorfu l shirts advertise the small business of M ichael Bian- cardi, senior, w hich spans over a half acre and yields over 180 lbs. of vegetables per week. Biancardi com es from a very green family; his par ents and siblings have been tending their half acre gar den for over 10 years. Two years ago, looking to make a dent in the approaching college tuition, Biancardi took over the plot and began researching w ays to make his garden b lo sso m ...fo r profit. "I'v e had the garden for two sum m ers, but this sum m er tried lots of new things; m any of w hich I w ill never do again," Biancardi said. H e created an irrig ation system out of PVC pipe, and has been m entored by a fam ily friend / farmer who sells to local businesses. The farm er sold to a high- end restaurant, Papa Haydn, for five years, along with several other area restau rants and businesses. At one point, the orders becam e too large for B ian card i’s m entor to m anage, and he passed along the business to Biancardi. In 2008, Biancardi b e g a n sellin g to H ay d n directly, m aking deliveries twice a week. It so u n d s lik e an easy b u sin ess...p lan t the crops, w ater them, harvest them, rake in the profit. According to Biancardi however, the investm ent is costly both financially and in time. "I just recently broke even financially after m y second summer of harvesting. Buy ing seeds, organic pest control and other costs w ere using up the profit I w as m aking from Haydn and the other restau rants," he said. The ep itom e of h an d s-on learning, Biancardi w ants to own his own business in the future and says that Giovanni's Garden has taught him much more than just farming. "I get to w ork w ith high- end chefs in Portland, so I've are past their prime and not fit for sale after a mere 24 hours. "M y family has two freezers, both are full of tom atoes and other veggies that I couldn't sell. Basically, w e'll be having hom em ade salsa for the next five years," he said. T his year, B iancard i has early release in order to focus on caring for the garden. He spends about 3-4 hours per day caring for the crops, most Photo by Amy Biancardi Michael Biancardi, senior, displays his recently harvested crops. He solely owns and operates Giovanni's Garden, a business that produces over 100 lbs. of vegetables per week that end up on plates at high-end Portland restaurants. learned lots of great custom er m anagem ent skills, as w ell as w hat to do w hen things go wrong— like forgetting to turn on the water, delivering to the wrong restaurant, not weeding as often as necessary, the list goes on pretty m uch forever," Biancardi said. O ne o f the m ost d ifficu lt things about the business has been learning all about perish able inventory. Biancardi sells his produce im m ediately after harvest, because the vegetables of it weeding, according to Biancardi. H e w ill keep his garden growing until he leaves for college, at w hich tim e he plans to hire a friend to fin ish the fall season. According to Biancardi, the garden is w orth more than just college money. "I love the feeling after har vest w hen my living room is full of vegetables, and I’m like yeah, I grew that," Biancardi said. www.RosboroughPhotography.com ~ info-'a RosboroughPhotography.com - 503.453.2844
