Kathleen

Kate Riley grew up on a dairy farm in Western New York where she was lucky enough to enjoy the fun of the farm minus the hard work. (She was allowed to tromp through pastures, play in haymows and feed barn kittens while her older brother did the hard work!) She studied landscape architecture at Cornell and worked in that profession for 10 years before transitioning to teaching. She has taught in a variety of environments and with a wide range of students, from preschool to her current junior and senior high school classes.

At Minerva Central School, Kate teaches junior and senior high classes including Wildlife Management, International Foods, Career Exploration, Food and Nutrition, as well as Introduction to Agriculture. With "all hands on deck," the school garden has been rehabilitated and now serves as a home base for many of the classes she teaches. Researching appropriate flowers, ordering, planting, and harvesting them to sell as a fundraiser was the first successful undertaking. This fall, her students are able to harvest tomatoes and squash to use in her International Foods course. Thanks to protective deer fencing, the pumpkins are still thriving and will be ready for harvest by Halloween.