Healing Gardens

Jay Carmony was born 8:03 AM, March 13^th, 1979, in Wooster Community Hospital in Wooster, Ohio. His heritage includes German and English with a dash Scottish, yielding a classic American mutt. He was raised there and graduated Wooster High in 1997. He went on to pursue an agriculture degree at The Ohio State University: Agricultural Technical Institute in his home town. He quickly decided that the curriculum he was exposed to was quite conventional, with no hopes of progressing beyond conventional agriculture he transferred to the main campus in hopes of more options. In Columbus, Ohio, he found a world confused and fast paced, and he himself found no alternatives to conventional agriculture, and then decided to study geology. Art was always a passion, but at this university one could only study one topic or another, so he chose science as a practical route to a career. After 6 quarters studying geology, he found his mind drifting to art and pursuits of a more progressive education due to several graduate students telling him “the only money in geology is oil”. He looked west at this point for some space and time to reflect. He landed himself a trail maintenance position for the USDA forest Service in Mackey, Idaho, which allowed him solace. He returned in the fall of 1999 to OSU and found, once again, that he didn’t fit. He dropped out of OSU to move to Washington, work for the Forest Service, gain residency to attend The Evergreen State College, as well as become a skilled snowboarder and class IV white water raft guide. But after his first season in Enumclaw, Washington, he went south for the Winter, on an invitation of a friend, to attend Dine College: the tribal college of the Navajo. He spent a semester there learning traditional silversmithing, health, and cultural studies of the Navajo. Being on his own he knew that the Forest Service could support him and he needed to stay in Washington to gain residency to attend the school, Evergreen, he always wanted too, he left the reservation. After several more years of seasonal work, in the Fall of 2003 he enrolled in The Evergreen State College as a fine arts student focusing in woodworking. He continued in woodworking, expanding into metal working and painting. In the Spring, he found the class of his dreams: Practice of Sustainable Agriculture. He attended this course for 4 quarters focusing in compost management and science. The next course work was obvious, Ecological Agriculture. After EcoAg, he decided to solidify his science pursuits in to a dual degree. He participated in Forest Ecology of the Pacific Northwest, Psychology of Dreams, then onto Fungal Kingdoms in Fall of 2006 gave Jay the upper division science credits he needed for his dual degree. His is currently the Student Trustee at TESC and is enrolled full time in evening studies: Healing Gardens and Grant writing. Healing Gardens was seen by Jay as a way to reconnect with his interests in first peoples, gardening, ecology and health. His future career pursuits include land management agencies, not for profits in agriculture, composting, farm management and education, as well as being a concerned, engaged citizen with local, state and national governments.