@Veronica Rosado where are you in Spain? I’m in Barcelona!

Hey everyone, my name is Rose (she/ her) 👋🏻 I currently live in Barcelona, Spain, but I grew up in Massachusetts, USA. I’m a queer international science teacher, teaching biology and environmental science to 14-18 year olds. I also run the EcoSchools program at our school, the high school sustainability club, and I’ve started a small rooftop garden at school with a 45 minute gardening elective that meets twice a week. I’ve always been inspired by nature and my hobbies consist of being creative like pottery or spending time outside either in the woods or at/ on/ by the ocean. Previous to living in Barcelona, I lived and taught in Dubai for 3 years. Living in cities for the past 6 years has been an amazing experience, however I’m feeling a pull to moving outside of the city and owning my own property with land to start a farm. I’ve struggled with teaching environmental science and trying to not be fatalistic with the state of the environmental crisis to bright young 16-17 year olds with their whole future ahead of them. I want them to believe in the possibility of a brighter, cleaner, and more sustainable and just future. With the current reality of the world, most days I struggle with believing in that myself. Recently we went on a 4 day class trip to a permaculture project (Almenara) in southern Spain and it was an incredible eye-opening experience for me. I had heard about permaculture previously and always wanted to explore it in more depth, however this was the first experience where I got the opportunity to do so. It was fantastic! I’m not entirely sure what the future will hold for me, however I feel grateful to have found this community and excited to learn more from you. I love being an educator and truly believe in its power to inspire and better the world. A dream I have is to one day have a permaculture farm of my own, where I can teach sustainability, edible education, and my partner can teach Forest School (a UK-based program). Whether that’s in Spain, the UK, the USA, or somewhere else, I don’t know yet!