Mentor - Amaryllis Olivo-Mockabee
Workforce Development Leader
Amaryllis Olivo-Mockabee
Cooperative Education Coordinator, Hazardous Occupations | Workforce Development | Community Partnerships | Grant Development & Management |Teacher of Greenhouse Management & Culinary Education | Urban Agriculture Advocate
A workforce development leader with deep roots in urban agriculture and culinary entrepreneurship, currently the Cooperative Education Coordinator, Hazardous Occupations, within the Essex County Schools of Technology.
An outspoken advocate for urban farming and youth empowerment, on a mission to help urban communities eat healthier, live longer, and connect with the global food movement. I’m also deeply passionate about building partnerships and career pathways to engage and inspire underserved youth, creating authentic connections between our students, our local community, and farming movement.
In addition to leading, planning, administration, and continued optimization of programs that connect classroom learning with real world, practical experience, I have built a network of partnerships to drive sustainable, scalable workforce development through grant-funded collaboration with internal stakeholders, community/civic leaders, and business owners.
Highlights of workforce programming I have created for my students includes:
- Our rooftop apiary and garden, beekeeping training that also serves as a source of locally harvested honey sold and invested back into our programming.
- Farmpreneurs, a work-based learning opportunity that combines online entrepreneurship education with work rotations at local community gardens.
- The Summer Youth Employment Program, a grant-funded partnership with the City of Newark and Essex County Youth One Stop.
- Urban agriculture CSA partnerships for sale of our value-added products such as granola
- Partnerships with local non-profits such as the Newark Youth Career Pathways (NYCP)
A certified beekeeper and certified master gardener, I’m active in the urban farming movement on both a local and global scale and have had the tremendous opportunity to expose my students to the world around them at the 4H Leadership Summit, through the NAACP Afro-Academic Cultural Technological Scientific Olympics and as a Global Guides Educator at 2019 World Food Prize Norman E. Borlaug International Dialogue in Des Moines, Iowa.
I recently transferred ownership of the Garden of Worker Bees, an adopt-a-lot community garden that served 100+ families and boasts 20 raised beds, a 600-gallon cistern, and a full working greenhouse.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT: THE PATH TO FOOD SECURITY IN NEWARK(FEATURING AMARYLLIS
