CEDAR HILL, Texas — If you’re lucky, you’ve had a teacher whose love for their vocation was so infectious it made learning easy.
According to Holly Brookman's students, the environmental science teacher fits that description. Inside her classroom, boring white walls wouldn’t do, so she had her husband paint huge tress around the room to make the space more inviting.
For more than a decade, she’s taught a plethora of science classes at Cedar Hill High School and was always bothered by an old greenhouse that sat vacant on the campus across from the football field.
“I’ve wanted to use that for my class for quite some time,” said Brookman. “I just did not have either the time or the know-how to tackle that myself, because it’s a big project.”
For several years, Brookman would speak about renovating the greenhouse with Tyesha Smith Lowe, executive director of innovation with the district’s Career Technical Education (CTE) program.
“This year was the year,” said Brookman. “Tye [Tyesha Smith Lowe] organized a group of volunteers and we’re finally going to put this greenhouse to good use.”
Lowe organized a partnership between the Cedar Hill Independent School District and Educate Texas, an initiative of Communities Foundation of Texas (CFT).
Their goal was to help make Brookman’s dream of an educational and environmentally conscious project a reality. The renovation project was part of CFT’s Freedom Day on Friday, September 10. The annual volunteer event commemorates the 9/11 attacks. This project was the first Freedom Day project led by volunteers and partners from CFT’s Educate Texas.
“Our Educate Texas team is thrilled to work with Cedar Hill ISD to support their greenhouse project on Freedom Day this year,” said George Tang, managing director of Educate Texas at Communities Foundation of Texas. “Our partnership with Cedar Hill ISD is very important to our organization, and we are committed to continuing to work together to strengthen educational opportunities for students and the community.”
The renovation project was sponsored by Dallas-based business TechScape Landscape which donated materials and committed to help the greenhouse operate for years to come. According to TechScape owner Kevin Winner, the business has partnered with CFT for more than a decade and helped with Freedom Day projects in recent years.
“Whenever they ask us to participate, we come with open arms,” said Winner. “We’ve done a lot of gardens and this is the nicest greenhouse and garden setup we’ve seen. This space has some great potential.”
One person really excited about this renovation project is one of Brookman’s senior students Nathan Theppharaj. Like Brookman, he has a love for gardening and over the years has wished the greenhouse would be utilized. He was one of the first volunteers to start working to clear the greenhouses’ main planter, and looks forward to growing vegetables on campus.
“Gardening is a skill that I picked up working with my grandparents,” said Theppharaj. “Both my grandparents love gardening and using fresh ingredients so I thought this would be a good thing to get involved with.”
Theppharaj and a group of his fellow students along with volunteers from the district and its community partners restored the greenhouse by pulling weeds, washing windows, potting soil and planting flowers and a tree donated by TechScape.
“The goal for this project is to grow a passion for agriculture,” said Brookman. “We’re going to grow food for the culinary department, especially things like vegetables and herbs so that they don’t have to buy items that can be expensive. So, we’d love being able to grow what they need in house.”
Brookman said knowing students like Theppharaj that are invested in learning is a teacher’s dream come true.
“My heart is filled with joy,” said Brookman. “I’m so excited for these kids that will be able to use this space and enjoy it. Instead of a worksheet or a video where they would learn about how plants grow. They’re now going to be able to actually do the work.”
Theppharaj believes Brookman is the perfect teacher to take on this project because of her teaching style.
“If I had to describe her using one word, I would say down to earth,” said Theppharaj. “She actually treats you like a person and less like a student.”
“Honestly, at the end of the day, it’s about seeing those little faces when they light up,” said Brookman. “When they understand something, or when they’ve come to some new conclusion, or they’ve changed their mind about something, that’s why I love my job.”
She said this greenhouse will be the perfect classroom to grow a passion for learning.
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