My Visit to SEEDS and Interview with Dr. Mike Rosenzweig

Last Friday, I left the Virginia Tech campus and walked a short ways down Main Street, to the SEEDS main location. I wanted to see what the "headquarters" looked like, and I had also scheduled an interview with Dr. Mike Rosenzweig, one of the men who founded SEEDS 13 years ago.

The office was not at all the way I imagined it, but after talking to Dr. Rosenzweig it seemed to suit the organization very well. It was not a large space, just a small suite in an office building. It seemed even smaller from the inside because it was full of furniture, educational tools, and just general "stuff". The office didn't exactly convey a sense of professionalism, but it was very unintimidating. It looked more like someone's basement than the location of a non-profit organization. But, as I learned from Dr. Rosenzweig, that's what SEEDS is all about. The image that the organization would like to maintain is one of a small, tightknit, low-key community.

Dr. Rosenzweig and fellow VT graduate Dave Deshler have a lot in common. One of those things was a love of exploration and experiencing the natural world as children. As adults, they noticed that with the changing times, kids didn't have the same opportunities to just go out and indulge their curiosities as they may have had in prior years. Thinking that this was too good an opportunity to allow an entire generation to pass up, they decided to found SEEDS to give kids the chance to learn about nature first-hand. The idea was to get kids away from TVs and computers and put them into the great outdoors so that they could experience it for themselves.

SEEDS is a very diverse group. Participants range in age from elementary school students to college kids. The group engages in all sorts of activities, from stream cleanups to tutoring to trips across the country. But the common theme is getting youth involved in experiencing and protecting nature.

After interviewing Dr. Rosenzweig, I talked a little bit with Robert Jacks, who is the President of the VT Chapter of SEEDS. The VT Chapter is an on-campus extension of SEEDS that tries to bring the ideals of the organization to the Hokie community. Since Virginia Tech actually does not rank amongst the more eco-friendly universities in the nation, environmental organizations on campus are very important for improving this position. Robert explained how the VT Chapter offers students an opportunity to play a role in bringing changes to make Virginia Tech a "greener" place.

I left feeling very impressed with the vision of Deshler and Dr. Rosenzweig. They could have gone anywhere or done anything with this idea of theirs, but they decided to launch it here in Blacksburg and keep it small. Their goal was to build a strong personal relationship with each and every SEEDS family so that parents would have no worries about sending their kids off with the group, whether on day trips or long-distance travel. I think it is an admirable cause and I can't wait to discover more about it.