Big, garden sized changes are coming to Loyola, and Environmental Science students are the ones behind it.

Loyola’s new Laudato Si Garden will be making its big debut this spring, just a year after Loyola bought the property it will reside on at 3434 Illinois, just across the street from Loyola. It’s an exciting time for many interested in the environment at Loyola, including four students in the Service Learning Environmental Science class who are taking the garden on as part of their year ending service symposium project. Their job: make sure as many people at Loyola know all the garden has to offer, and get student input on it.

“The school needs it,” Senior Madeline Wild, one of the students working on the project, says. “The school is calling us. There’s just not enough student input and we’re changing that,” she added.

Dr. Martin, the Ignatian Service Learning program Director, also emphasized the school’s need for the garden. “During the pandemic so many students, for mental health reasons, were longing for gardening,” he stated.

Letting students know and educating them about a garden that has been mostly running behind the scenes so far will be a tough task, but the project group is up for it. They’re planning on surveying both students and faculty, getting their input on what should go in the garden. They’re also doing mourning announcement, making posters to put up around school, and redecorating a new bulletin board in the science hallway that hasn’t been updated in years.

“We’re hoping the new, updated look will strike students’ eye,” remarked Wild.

While it may be hard work getting the word out at first, the students and the faculty they have in their corner are ready fir any challenge and confident they will succeed. When the garden is ready, it will be a space where class can be held, food can be grown, and students, faculty, and neighbors alike can reflect and immerse themselves in nature. And, hopefully it can be a space that students can enjoy.

“I envision it as students using it as a place to learn, relax,” concluded Wild.