Alumni Spotlight-Abby Jenkins

Abby Jenkins graduated 2017 with a major in English. She was a student farmer starting from the second half of my sophomore year throughout my senior year. She also worked on the farm full-time for two summers! Her sophomore year she just felt compelled to get outside and volunteer more at the farm. The program looked really amazing and once she went, she never left! Abby looks back on her time at the farm fondly, her favorite activity was moving sheep! She loved working with the animals so getting to see the excitement on their faces when they opened up a fresh new field was so rewarding. 

Since graduation she has done a variety of different things! She has run a farm camp and had a more corporate job as a coordinator for a biotech company, and a few other things in between! Now, she lives in Maine with my husband, a fellow Dickinson alum, and they just started a small-scale micro-farm and native plant nursery, Whaleback Nursery.  Ever since she got into farming at the college farm, she never really wanted to do anything else. Abby is so glad to have found that passion during her time at Dickinson. For her, working and growing your own food has been one of the most purposeful and rewarding things she’s ever done! It never gets old. The local food community is also extremely strong and welcoming wherever you go. Abby maintained a lot of her skills/relationships with her fellow farmers and has only met more and more like-minded individuals.  

Abby hopefully is starting her ultimate career right now! Starting a native plant nursery and small farm has been a dream of theirs for a while, and they’re very fortunate enough to be able to start. They hope to one day to be more than just a place to buy produce/plants but a place for community events, farm parties, and more! Along with their growing business they also have a dog, Dewey, two cats, Emmett & Bear, and 23 chickens! They love to cook and play ultimate frisbee at local pickup games.