This week we are continuing to spotlight our Eco-Apprentice program. Please meet Rainey Korang, who was a member of the Eco-Apprentice team from June 2017 – August 2018.
Rainey first discovered LEJ during a career fair at San Francisco State. At the time, Rainey was a senior majoring in Recreation, Parks, and Tourism. During the apprenticeship, we were able to watch him transform. Rainey is a transgender male. As a safe place for diversity of all kinds, we offered an environment where Rainey could feel more secure in his own skin. “The combination of LEJ having a welcoming and safe environment with the healing properties of working with plants helped nurture my transition. It was a warm environment for me to feel safe to express myself naturally.” Knowing that he wanted a job working with the environment, he was still unsure as to what it would actually be.
Today, Rainey leads a maintenance crew for Gentle Giant’s Gardening and Landscaping, here in San Francisco. His team maintains residential gardens comprised of sustainable and drought tolerant plants.
When asked what he learned at LEJ that was most useful, Rainey replied, “plant identification, pruning and caring for plants, and leadership skills.” Rainey went on to share that he learned a lot about how to lead a team and how to communicate from leading volunteer groups at LEJ. “Since you never know who is going to show up for volunteer days, you are often working with people you don’t know and need to figure out how to explain things in different ways so they can understand, often on the fly.” Rainey also found those leadership opportunities to be a confidence builder in terms of public speaking.
Rainey summed it up: “the experience with LEJ and working with native plants, geared me more for my current job than my major did. The degree helped, but it was this experience that landed me the job.”
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