Valley Verde Round 2: Supporting Food Sovereignty through Garden Education and Capacity Building in San Jose
Overview
Valley Verde is dedicated to building healthy and resilient communities by providing low-income families educational programs, edible gardens, and micro-entrepreneurship opportunities that create food security and lead to self-sufficiency. We accomplish this in our Shared Garden Program where we provide home garden supplies, monthly gardening workshops, mentorship, and garden visits to address the needs of food access and food insecurity in the community.
About the Fellowship
Valley Verde is seeking a fellow to support one of the following projects:
Beekeeping Program
Valley Verde completed a Beekeeping pilot program in 2025. The workshops were conducted with the assistance of a beekeeper, who helped develop the curriculum. As we plan to recruit new participants for the program, the curriculum needs to be reviewed and revised. To ensure the curriculum is accessible to the broader community, it would be beneficial to translate it to Spanish and Vietnamese.
Community Garden Program
Valley Verde has a curriculum for the Shared Garden Program, in which families learn to grow their own food in their backyards. As we expanded our program to Gilroy, we are now working with a community garden that does not have raised beds. Shared Garden Program curriculum needs to be reviewed to create a curriculum that aligns with the needs of the Community Garden. This curriculum will also need to be translated to Spanish and Vietnamese.
Valley Verde is seeking a fellow passionate about food security, sustainability, community engagement, and education for Summer 2025 in support of our goals.
Preferred qualifications:
- Experience working in a multi ethnic community environment and have multicultural literacy.
- Ability to develop professional relationships with program participants regardless of language barriers, cultural differences, or physical/mental abilities.
- Knowledge of gardening, food justice, beekeeping and environmental topics.
- Written and verbal skills in Spanish or Vietnamese if possible.
- Skills in curriculum development and community engagement.
Stipend
Undergraduate Cardinal Quarter Fellows receive a base stipend of $8,000 (which includes a $500 cost of living adjustment for the Bay Area) to support living expenses during the 10-week fellowship. Financial aid and supplemental funding ($1,000-$1,500 additional) may be available to students who qualify (learn more here).
Students in a 2-year Masters program will receive a stipend of $9,500. Students who have begun their coterm programs (i.e. paying graduate tuition) will also receive a stipend of $9,500.
Please note that students can apply for no more than three different PCJ fellowship opportunities during a single application round.
This is a full-time (35-40 hours/week), 10-week opportunity during Summer 2025, starting no later than July 7, 2025. All fellows are required to work with their community partners for ten consecutive weeks.
Undergraduate, co-term and Masters students from all academic disciplines are encouraged to apply. Priority will be given to students who have completed fewer than two previous Cardinal Quarter opportunities.
Please note graduating seniors are welcome to apply, but are not eligible for financial aid supplemental funding. Please review our program policies for complete eligibility requirements.
In order to be eligible for a Haas Center-sponsored Cardinal Quarter summer opportunity, undergraduate students are required to be enrolled in both the winter and spring quarters.
Students are required to be in good academic standing. The requirements for good academic standing include: 1) Earn at least 9 units of credit in a single quarter. 2) Earn at least 36 units over the most recent three quarters 3) Maintain a cumulative grade point average (GPA) of 2.0 or above.
Additional Fellowship Requirements
This opportunity is associated with Partnerships for Climate Justice in the Bay Area (PCJ in the Bay), an initiative to build equitable climate change solutions by supporting partnerships between Stanford students, faculty and Bay Area community leaders. Fellows will be a part of a cohort of other PCJ in the Bay summer fellows placed at sites across the Bay Area.
Additional requirements include
Spring 2025:
- Attend the required spring retreat on Saturday May 17th 9am-4pm with cohort peers.
- Complete an online program orientation.
- Participate in an in-person Engaging in Ethical and Effective Service workshop at the Haas Center.
- Identify and meet with an academic mentor (Stanford faculty or staff) at least once.
- Design a personal learning plan and share the learning plan with your site supervisor and academic mentor.
- Complete all required pre-orientation forms.
Summer 2025:
- Complete a pre-program assessment survey.
- Attend all PCJ in the Bay Fellows cohort activities (more information will be shared about these events in spring quarter).
- Submit a final report documenting your work and reflecting on your learning.
- Correspond with fellowship donor(s) as requested by fellowships program staff.
- Complete a post-program assessment survey.
Fall 2025:
- Meet with your academic mentor to discuss your fellowship experience at least once.
- Participate in outreach activities to share the experience and help publicize the program.
Frequently Asked Questions for PCJ Summer 2025 Fellowships.
Selection Process
Complete applications are screened, finalists interviewed, and fellows selected by the host organizations staff with the intention to award fellowships prior to spring break. Applicants should respond promptly (within 48 hours) via email to a fellowship offer, or the offer will be rescinded. Once an applicant accepts a fellowship offer, the student should promptly notify all other Stanford and non-Stanford programs to which they have applied that they have accepted another offer and to withdraw their candidacy.
