Our 2023 Mentorship Program Wrap-up
Written by MaryEllen Pitts, Mentorship Coordinator
The Mentorship Program connects mentors with mentees over the course of 10 visits, to share knowledge and experience, and to create connections within the Indiana farming community. Funding from the Indiana State Department of Agriculture’s Specialty Crop Block Grant has made the 2023-2024 program pilot phase possible.
Here’s a brief summary of what our first cohort (July - November 2023) has looked like on the ground.
The first cohort of ten mentor/mentee pairs met at an in-person kickoff event at Growing Places Indy on July 26, 2023. They toured the farm, began setting goals and prioritizing topics together, and set schedules for virtual and in-person farm visits.
Over the course of 3 ½ months, mentors and mentees visited each others’ farms, conducted six virtual meetings to dive into key topics of their choice, texted, spoke on the phone, and used the Mentorship Workbook to guide their interactions.
During the in-person Wrap Up at Teter Organic Farm, participants gathered to process the mentorship from multiple angles: in mentorship pairs, among mentors, among mentees, and finally as the first pilot cohort giving us advice for the program going forward. One of the main reflections from mentors and mentees was a desire for more in-person time together as a cohort. Read on for how we added that to Cohort 2, within its already-set structures.
Our participating mentorship farmer pairs were:
Kate Sexton, Fields Market Garden (mentee) + Katy Rogers, Teter Organic Farm (mentor)
Tiffani Enyinnaya, Ughmozpug, Inc. (mentee) + Dan Perkins, Perkins’ Good Earth Farm (mentor)
Brandon Pugh, Lucky3Homestead (mentee) + Ben Craft, Hoosier Fungi (mentor)
Mystery Davis, Garden of Mystery (mentee) + Grace Gonso, WAG Farm (mentor)
Carolyn Estell, Stobo Farm LLC (mentee) + David Sims, Heirloom Acres (mentor)
Daniel Trubey-Weller, Barn Swallow Farm (mentee) + Jeff Hawkins, J.L. Hawkins Family Farm (mentor)
Ope Ojo, Ojos Farm (mentee) + Robert Pinder, Little by Little Farm, LLC (mentor)
Tina Miars, Tree Frog (mentee) + Chris Adair, Purdue Student Farm (mentor)
Bernard Cooper, The Cooper-Alvarez Family Farm (mentee) + Mary Winstead, Beautiful Edibles (mentor)
Jubilee Fly, Jubilee Funny Farm (mentee) + Linda Chapman, Harvest Moon Flower Farm (mentor)
