About Us
Building Upon History
Nova Farm School is partnering with Benedikt Dairy, located at the historical Shirley family farm. The farm encompasses over 200 acres of vegetable gardens, pastures, and woods.
Because Benedikt Dairy is a working dairy and vegetable farm, farm campers will learn from experienced farmers and actively participate in daily farm life. While focusing on the joy and excitement of exploring nature, our goal is for children to develop a life-long relationship with the land that nourishes them.
“Teaching kids how to feed themselves and how to live in a community responsibly is the center of an education.” — Alice Waters, founder, Edible Schoolyard Project
Agriculture is a vital
part of an education
Food and farming is the most fundamental part of human life on earth. Despite this, the manner in which we grow the food that sustains us is left out of most academic curricula. With more understanding of agriculture, children are better equipped to immerse themselves in world history, connect to concepts in biology or earth science, and understand cultures in social studies. Our mission is to provide children with meaningful and fun farming experiences, and to strengthen the connection between young people and the food they eat, the clothes they wear, and the fellow humans who make it all possible.
Meet the Team
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FounderLydia grew up on the farm, and has a passion for outdoor and agricultural education. She graduated from Williams College with a degree in Environmental Studies. While there, she was president of the Williams Sustainable Growers, a group dedicated to sharing gardening and farming knowledge with the student body and local community. As an intern at a local land trust, she co-led a nature exploration day camp in Williamstown, MA. She went on to teach a farm camp at Wolfe’s Neck Center for Agriculture and the Environment in Freeport, ME.
Lydia is currently an early childhood education teacher at High Mowing School. She’s incredibly excited to be running farm camp this summer, and to be able to help children delve deeper into learning where their food comes from.
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Julia is a New Hampshire native, who studied Biology and German at Williams College. During a gap year, she worked as an environmental scientist for NHDES, and also assisted in researching a contaminated water supply in Illinois, where her research was used to support a legal case for local residents.At Williams, she researched PCB contamination in a local river, and conducted lab and field work to study the relationships between pollinators and the plants they visited. After graduating, she also led a nature-based summer camp in Williamstown.
Currently, Julia is living in Vienna, Austria on a Fulbright teaching scholarship where she teaches English and Environmental Sciences. She is excited to return home for farm camp this summer!
