On a recent spring day, two classes of UVA Batten undergraduate students traveled half an hour from Grounds to a local farm where they got their hands dirty for a good cause. 

Hewing to the Batten School’s tradition of service learning, the students were volunteering with the nonprofit Autism Sanctuary, helping to prepare 280 feet of vegetable beds for planting tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant. More than 110 students from  both sections of professor Kirsten Gelsdorf’s course, “Lead from Anywhere: From the Classroom to the Community,” participated, and are graduating with their bachelor’s degrees this week. 

“The underlying theme of the whole course was that leadership is service,” said Callahan Burton. “It shouldn’t be about you or about power. Leadership is really an act of service in itself.” 

On their arrival, the students were greeted by the organization’s staff and several of their members, who are people with autism, including one who loves music and who performed a song for the newly arrived guests. 

“He’d never performed for anybody before and they were all clapping for him,” said Olivia Bruno, the senior director. “We’ve never had this many people out here to volunteer before, and for the people in our program, that was just life-changing for them.” 

The mission of the Autism Sanctuary is to “enhance the lives of those with autism through nature-based activities by fostering community connections and providing personalized support.” The sanctuary is a working farm, with chickens, cattle, bees, and a variety of vegetables, which it sells at the Crozet Farmer’s Market and to local shops and distributors. 

The members receive day programming at the sanctuary and are supported in engaging in a variety of nature-based and agricultural activities to build skills that can translate into the local labor market, Bruno said. 

The Batten students were a tremendous help that day, she said – they pulled weeds, turned the dirt, and put down mulch and compost in four long vegetable beds to ready them for thousands of tomato plants. “Bringing these communities together at the sanctuary was just awesome. It was great for our members to experience the Batten community and how kind and helpful and welcoming they were.”

Jonathan Dixon, the director of agriculture and land management at the sanctuary, worked with UVA Batten’s Shawn Anderson, associate director of student services and community engagement, to arrange the day of service. “We see the Autism Sanctuary as something beyond ourselves, so any chance we get to host volunteers is great, because we’re changing lives,” he said.

It seemed to be a mutual feeling among the Batten students as well. 

“Just getting out there to help a small community that’s trying to foster change for a really good cause is really impactful and I think bridging that through Batten curriculum was pretty great, pretty beautiful,” said Jaehon Lee. “You really do feel like you’re making fundamental change on the ground.”

Classmate Abigail Allen also felt a deep sense of connection and purpose from the day. She said part of her learning experience was hearing the challenges the sanctuary staff face getting government funding for their program. Allen, who plans to go into law, said she understood more deeply that her actions “in the office” at any job she may get in the government will be affecting real people.  “Without seeing them, you kind of forget exactly what happens when you’re doing all this paperwork, but it is very important to consider. Going to the actual physical place can be helpful.” 

“As leaders, we really should be an example to people,” Burton said. “Charlottesville is our community. As young leaders, as aspiring leaders, to have the opportunity to go out there and help make a difference, it’s almost incumbent upon us to do so.” 

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