Student Spotlight: Raffaella Merino ’25 & Lucy Rotenberg ’25
Seniors Raffaella Merino and Lucy Rotenberg are co-leaders of the club PiBlooms, a service-based club that distributes flowers, originally intended solely for biodiversity, from Paideia’s vegetable production farm to a local nonprofit nursing home. Lucy and Raffaella recall PiBlooms’ origins and share what they have gained through the institution of this club.
Budding Opportunity
By Raffaella Merino ’25
What appeared to be just another normal hot summer workday at the Paideia Farm turned out to be the day the first seeds of the idea for PiBlooms were planted. It was two summers ago, around late June, when I was able to first visit the farm since summer break began. After doing a full summer internship at the farm the previous summer, I had become quite familiar with the farm. I was no stranger to the routine and the work expected of me and I had grown a love for urban agriculture. Something about tending to the Earth, contributing to the creation of life, and being part of a community that was larger than myself drew me in and kept me mesmerized. Even turning soil in what was previously cover crop beds under the blazing sun, which we happened to be doing on this particular day, felt rewarding. Part of the reward came in the form of making connections with the other farmers through conversation and gossip.
On this day, this aspect of farm life was especially rewarding as I incidentally overheard a conversation that sprouted the idea for PiBlooms. Erin, the farm manager, was conversing with a Paideia adult who was visiting the farm when their conversation turned to the beautiful flowers that were in full bloom around us. I heard Erin say that she wished they could do something with the beautiful flowers, but that there just wasn’t enough bandwidth for such an endeavor. To me, this felt like the perfect opportunity to start something new and impactful within our farm community. As I looked up from my work, I realized I wasn’t the only one who had heard the potential in Erin’s statement. My partner in crime, Lucy, overheard the brief, yet essential interaction. Our eyes met and a mutual goal was made: we were going to take advantage of this opportunity presented before us. From that instance, the club now known as PiBlooms emerged.
Blossoming Connection
By Lucy Rotenberg ’25
Through work at the farm and learning from Emily, Erin, Cassie, peers and so many more wonderful members of our community, I am thankful to have gained a strong sense of what productive, considerate civic engagement can look like. Meaningful volunteerism is a result of working with community members and engaging with their existing ideas and solutions rather than trying to create entirely new solutions to existing problems. PiBlooms is a culmination of support that we have received from committed faculty members and the utilization of resources available to us, time, individual strengths and most importantly, a readiness to listen. Raffaella, Eloise and all those who have supported PiBlooms have made it possible for us to apply our understanding of civic engagement to a real-world scenario; simply put, Paideia Farm had the capacity to grow and harvest more flowers, and we knew A.G. Rhodes would benefit from receiving them! Our work is fueled by love, joy and a commitment to community-building, and is therefore a source of reciprocity for both PiBlooms club members and residents at A.G. Rhodes.
I cherish each moment I spend surrounded by zinnias, sunflowers, amaranth, tulsi and more, but the knowledge that these flowers will brighten a community member’s day makes the act of harvesting exponentially more meaningful. Every snip of the stem (at an angle, directly above a node– of course) is an intentional act, allowing me to contemplate the importance of civic engagement while simultaneously enjoying the abundance of flowers and friends around me. The more intention one brings to their work, the more joy they will experience, but also, joy encourages intention. This interconnection allows relationships and civic engagement to blossom (pun intended!!).
As seniors, Lucy and Raffaella are steadfast in recruiting underclassmen leaders like Eloise Miller ’26 to run the club in the next school year and carry on the mission they started.
