Tessarae Mercer is an Intern at the UW Farm this summer. The work fulfills part of her capstone (graduation requirement) for the Program on the Environment. She grew up in Vancouver, Washington before coming to Seattle to study at the University of Washington in fall of 2013. In her (limited) free time, she enjoys being out in nature, reading, and dance. Her academic interests closely align with her personal hobbies, as she is currently studying Environmental Studies and Dance. As she says, “I think those two majors do an excellent job of summing up two of my biggest interests in the world!”

A couple of Tessarae’s favorite classes in college so far have been Environmental Ethics and Natural History of the Puget Sound. She describes both classes as “fascinating,” and remarks that they have both been really influential in justifying her decision to major in environmental studies.

Tessarae came to UW Botanic Gardens through her work  at the UW Farm. In a typical day, she does a lot of different things. Sometimes she’s working on her own independent project in the permaculture garden, or participating in general farming activities such as weeding, seeding, pruning, or harvesting vegetables. she loves getting to help out wherever she can and learning everything she can about the farm!

Her favorite plant (as of right now) are the tomato plants! Any of them, really. It’s her favorite because she loves the way pretty much every tomato tastes and she also really enjoys spending time tending to and pruning the tomato plants, finding it very therapeutic.