Alumna Saves Seeds, Serves the Community

In a three-year internship for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, Jaramillo-Visconte tends a native plant nursery in Sunol, a small town in the East Bay. As part of her work, she collects indigenous seeds from local landscapes and is building a public seed library from the ground up.

“I’m busy every day, there’s always something to be done, I always come home with dirt under my nails, and I think that is the mark of a good day,” she said.

Jaramillo-Visconte saved seeds in the USF community garden, where she took three gardening classes. In addition to studying in the garden, she worked there as a research assistant and teaching assistant for urban agriculture professors David Silver and Novella Carpenter. “I wouldn’t be where I am without the mentors that I had, as well as all the support and care that I felt,” she said.

Jaramillo-Visconte’s time in the community garden inspired her to apply for a job at the USF Seed Library within Gleeson Library, where she augmented her apprenticeship in the soil with cataloging seeds for circulation under librarians Debbie Benrubi (now retired) and Carol Spector. In the spirit of seed sovereignty, Jaramillo-Visconte worked with Spector to make seeds more accessible to communities beyond campus, carrying seeds from USF to the farmers market in Bayview.

“Seed sovereignty is the right for people to grow, save, trade, and sell seeds independent from corporations,” Jaramillo-Visconte said.

It was through the Community Empowerment Activists program led by Jacqueline Ramos, which she describes as “the best class that I took at USF,” that Jaramillo-Visconte realized seed saving could be a job. “My final project in that class was on the seed library and seed sovereignty.”

After two years of working with seeds at USF, Jaramillo-Visconte applied to a job posting from the SFPUC in December 2023 and landed an interview in March of her final spring semester. She began her new role in July.

“I’ve been there for eight months now, and it’s still kind of crazy that I get to go on to all these beautiful landscapes and get to go collect seeds,” she said.

Her advice to current students?

“Life is so short and so precious; do the things that make you happy. Do the things that you are called to do. Find ways to contribute to the construction of a better world because we need it right now.”