Club President: Nick Yakobchuck
Bellevue College student majoring in Molecular BioScience
Favorite plant: Sundew plant
Fun fact about Nick: He REALLY likes cats, in fact he has four! Their names are Max, Fuzzy Cat, Meesha, and Buster.
Why is he involved in Garden Club: Nick is pursuing a career as a plant geneticist. He also finds gardening fun!
Faculty Advisor: Rick Glover
Associate Professor in Chemistry Department
Favorite plant: kohlrabi
Fun fact about Rick: He once built his own bike from scratch!
Why is he involved in Garden Club: Rick believes that people should have food security and understand how to grow their own edible plants. He aims to teach students about food sovereignty and plant diversity. The genetic and species diversity of edible plants that our ancestors worked hard to cultivate has become bottle-necked in recent history and he hopes to show students the wide variety of edible, open-pollinated plants that can be grown in the Pacific Northwest and the importance of a diverse source of food to nourish us.
Faculty Advisor: Elena I. Maans
Librarian, LMC
Favorite plant: Tulip
Fun fact about Elena: She was once a student at Second City in Chicago where she learned improvisation acting from the pros!
Why is she involved in Garden Club: Elena really enjoys the community aspect of gardening. She likes to encourage building a community around growing food together and learning new gardening fact/skills together. She also enjoys cooking with produce grown by her and her garden partners!