I’m Lucille Theodora Little, sophomore UW-Milwaukee student in Environmental Science and Geography. I am an avid fan of nature, data science, and cheese. There are many things I’m looking to learn in the future – language, cheesemaking, beekeeping, gardening, programming, painting, mapmaking, biology, ecology, cultural geography, and more. Certainly, this is quite a few things, and you can see how interning here provides a strong opportunity to get started on at least a few of these.

I am interning here at the Gathering Ground vineyard hoping to exercise my mind and partake in the real experience of working with nature and farming. Most of my experience with plants has been about sustaining the environment, not working with domestic ones, so there’s a lot to learn. In the past, I have spent many hours volunteering in urban Milwaukee, where most of our time is spent removing invasive plants and planting native ones. Despite the prevalence of invasives of other sorts, the energy is very plant-centric in Milwaukee, to large extent due to the practicality and labor-intensity of fighting invasive plants. My natural assumption is that other forms of invasives take a more tactical, professional approach.

I’m hoping that coming out here and getting a feel for all the difficulties (opportunities) there are out in places like this will give me a strong direction to take my education and career. I had already figured out that I really wanted to work outside most of the days of the week, but working my mind and helping the world appropriately alongside that has been the struggle. Environmental Geography is the perfect opportunity – going outside to collect information, experience, and data, so that I can apply that to improving the community’s health and happiness.