Meet College Farm and Dickinson Alumni, Will Kochtitzky ’16, an Earth Sciences major. Will worked 6 semesters and part of a summer (2013) at the farm from spring 2013 to spring 2016. Hear about it from Will directly!

I have so many fond memories at the farm, planting, harvesting, making biogas, welding, splitting wood, watering, and so much more. Going to the farm was always a highlight of my week at Dickinson. I was able to ride my bike to the farm and get away from academics for a few hours, which helped me reflect on my studies and ultimately do better in my course work. Of my many memories at the farm, most of them are because of the people I got to work with including Matt, Jenn, the apprentices, and fellow students.

When I graduated Dickinson, I went to graduate school at the University of Maine to study glaciers. After finishing at UMaine, I went to the University of Ottawa where I completed my PhD continuing my work in glaciology. I then got a position at the University of New England where I am currently an assistant professor. I teach our geographic information system (GIS) program, something I started studying at Dickinson. Even though I strayed from agriculture, I think the farm was fundamental in helping shape who I am at work and helping create my work ethic. GIS can also help us understand a lot about agriculture, which I continue to use in my teaching and research.

The farm has shaped who I am today in many ways, but perhaps the biggest is what happens in my backyard. I currently live in Biddeford, Maine, with my wife, Anna McGinn ’14, where we farm a large vegetable garden and young fruit orchard. Our garden includes a couple dozen varieties of vegetables, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, asparagus, peaches, apples, beach plums, paw paws, herbs, cherries, and more. In 2024, we added bees! As we are preparing our vegetable garden each year, we 100% rely on the techniques we learned at the College Farm and grow our garden the way Matt and Jenn taught us, or at least as much as we can remember! The biggest complement we got from our neighbor our first year at the house, he said “you clearly have done this before”. Yes, we have done this before, all thanks to Matt, Jenn, and the Dickinson College Farm. We enjoy very rare trips to grocery store during the summer and many frozen/preserved garden goodies year-round.

I can’t thank Matt and Jenn enough for the opportunity to work at the College Farm and learn from them. I choose to attend Dickinson primarily because of the College Farm, which ended up being one of the best decisions of my life. I am very grateful and will continue to enjoy all the yummy food we grow thanks to my time at Dickinson. Thank you, Matt and Jenn!!