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Arboretum good for AU, student life

The McKinley building is surrounded by gardens. Photo by Meagan Pruitt
The McKinley building is surrounded by gardens. Photo by Meagan Pruitt

WASHINGTON — American University’s arboretum and gardens not only made it the 4th prettiest urban campus in the nation, according to one website, but has also served as a promotional piece to potential students and faculty.

Throughout campus, there are 75 different species of trees, including the Franklin tree at McCabe Hall, the white oak at the president’s office building and the Maidenhair tree overlooking Jacobs Field and in the amphitheater. It also includes 10 gardens, which are surrounded by a mixture of perennials, ornamental grasses and shrubs. The location of the plants and trees in the arboretum are selected based on soil, drainage and view.

Many of the trees and plants display a sign to tell the observer the formal and common name of the plant, where it originates and if it has a donor. There are many benches underneath these trees and beside the gardens for those who want to sit and enjoy their surroundings.

Some parts of the arboretum, such as the area next to the amphitheater, are certified wildlife habitats because that property provides food, water, cover and a place for wildlife to raise their young.

The arboretum and gardens have been apart of the university’s campus for 18 years, and provide educational opportunities. Some parents thought that the gardens showed that the university would take care of their children, Landscape Architect Michael Mastrota said.

“It’s good for publicity,” Mastrota said. “Having a pretty campus attracts students and faculty.”

The landscape has also brought alumni back to the community and become a fundraising tool. The landscapiing allows students and professors to take class outside, as well.

Juan Ruis, who has been working for the gardens for 10 years, agrees with Mastrota that the landscape attracts students. Students come back after graduation to see what’s new, he said.

Ruis began his job as summer help and has been working here ever since. During the summer, he weeds, edges the trees and waters the gardens. Even if it is in the upper 90s, Ruis is out working to make the campus uphold its standing on Kelsey Fox’s “The 50 Most Beautiful Urban College Campuses.”

And Chris Mooney’s article, “Why green spaces are good for your kid’s brain,” published recently in The Washington Post, reported that students showed improvement in testing when exposed to more greenery than the average.

Students improved, on average, “in working memory, higher order ‘superior working memory’ and attentiveness…it was the greenness of the commute and especially the school that made all the difference.”

To make the entire campus attractive, Mastrota not only works on the gardens, but the parking, walkways and light bulbs as well. The addition of the arboretum and gardens to the university’s campus attracted TV and news publicity, Mastrota said.

“I think it represents a good face for the university and community,” he said.

 

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Families pitch in at Newark Street

Susan Akman explains the process of creating viable compost. Photos by Meagan Pruitt
Susan Akman explains the process of creating viable compost. Photos by Meagan Pruitt

WASHINGTON — There’s still a two-year wait list, but 190 gardeners have become increasingly involved at Newark Street Community Garden and Park in this Northwest neighborhood near the National Cathedral.

Since its creation on National Food Day in 1975, the garden and park have expanded to four acres and grown to encompass all families in the District. The environment includes 200 plots to grow flowers or vegetables, and also a dog park, children’s playground and tennis courts.

Newark Street, the largest of the District’s 26 urban gardens, still dominates the four-acre park and offers what many members found in the first place — a respite and an opportunity to give back to the community.

Stephanie Cope, a sophomore at nearby American University, works as a nanny and visits the playground three times each day.

“It has a lot of different activities for different ages,” Cope said. “And it’s safe.”

The garden offers a free children’s program, in which kids are taught about the fundamentals and learn about different types of worms. They harvest and water plants in a separate area by the playground.  Susan Akman, coordinator of the program, doesn’t recall families being so involved in the gardens when her children were young, and said she is glad that kids are learning the importance of growing food and flowers alongside their parents.

The park, open to the public, gives families a spot to grill and picnic, too.

And even if a member is too elderly to perform certain tasks, others help them so they don’t lose their plot.

“We invite people in because we feel like we’re an education source,” Akman said. “It’s to be an inviting, pretty park.”

Elwood Gautier's plot of gardens are displayed neatly.
Elwood Gautier plants vegetables in orderly rows.

Elwood Gautier, 76, maintains a neat garden. He washes and packages his vegetables and plants and donates them to Miram’s Kitchen, Akman said. Other gardeners donate to So Others Can Eat (SOME) in the District. And those at St. Alban’s Senior Citizen Centre come to the gardens to collect produce as well.

And when times are difficult, some members of the community came to the gardens for refuge. After the 9/11 attacks, Akman recalled one woman coming here before she went anywhere else.

“The first place she came was the gardens because she found such solace in it,” Akman said.

 

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Steak ’n Egg: an amiable atmosphere

Clauton Kum talks about his experience at the diner. Photo by Meagan Pruitt

WASHINGTON — Osman and Joe’s Steak ’n Egg Kitchen, a 24-hour staple of the Tenleytown neighborhood, is where Clauton Kum has spent the last three years learning to cook.

“It’s fun to have a staff that works with you,” Kum said. “We goof around with each other all the time, making jokes. It makes the night go faster.”

The 24-hour restaurant features outdoor seating, which looks out on Wisconsin Avenue, and is surrounded with a white picket fence. Eight white tables that can seat about 50 people fill this patio, and if this and the 12 seats at the counter inside aren’t enough, employees make more, said Kum.

The rising sophomore at the University of Maryland came to the United States in 2005 from Cameroon seeking a better education. Osman Barrie and Joe Vamboi, the store’s owners, who befriended Kum’s family, gave him the opportunity to work for their business when he was a sophomore in high school in Silver Spring, Maryland. Through the job, he learned how to cook, working on weekends during the school year and now more hours in the summer months .

Steak 'n Eggs exterior
The patio outside of the diner provides shaded seating. Photo by Meagan Pruitt

Staffers often juggle more than one task— cooking, working the cash register, waiting tables. And Kum’s favorite part of the work is interacting with customers, especially with local college students who frequently come after a night on the town.

“This is the place at the late hour when you’re trying to sober up,” he said. The college crowd energizes the place, adding an entertaining atmosphere filled with spontaneous rap performances and comedic conversations, he added.

The counter, reminiscent of a classic diner, is just inches away from the kitchen, where the staff labors over hot grills. Kum and his fellow staff members work fast; on a recent weekday morning there was a steady stream of people both coming and going.

Kum and other employees are always chatting with customers, laughing with them and trying to make them feel comfortable.

Customers at Steak 'n Eggs
The diner fills up in the morning for breakfast. Photo by Meagan Pruitt

At 10:30 a.m. on a recent weekday, the Jost family, visiting from Indianapolis, arrived after reading a review on Yelp, and ordered biscuits and country fried steak with gravy. Chris Jost described his meal as “great,” while his wife, Candace, said her French toast was “delicious” and daughter Elizabeth pronounced her funnel cakes “the bomb.”

Kum served their table, then dashed back to the kitchen to keep cooking. One of his favorite dishes — and a customer favorite — is the Tennessee Scramble, which features ham, bacon and sausage, and is served with biscuits and gravy.  He said, “the omelettes are a little of a struggle,” but in his time behind the counter, he has now mastered the egg-and-cheese sandwich and pancakes.