Medicinal Herbs Apprenticeship:
June 10 – October 17 2022

Application deadline: Wednesday May 25th

Workshops:

*Some of the workshops will be held online over Zoom or Jitsi. Small changes may be made to the workshop topics and locations (online vs. at Concordia’s Loyola Campus).
*We will be visiting La Ferme Coopérative Aux Champs Qui Chantent in Brownsburg QC for a field trip on Saturday Aug 20th. Please let the coordinator know if you have a car and are able to offer carpooling to and from the farm.
*There are 2 holiday weeks scheduled when students are not required to do garden shifts. These weeks will be July 3 – 10 and August 28 – Sept 4.

Apprenticeship Hours
All students must fulfill 60 hours of apprenticeship and attend the Friday workshops. Hours spent in our Friday workshops do not count towards the total number of apprenticeship hours. Apprenticeship hours are made up of garden shifts and kitchen/transformation shifts. The schedule will be made with you, and will not fluctuate. Shifts are listed below. You must commit to ONE weekly shift for the entire season:

Attendance
In order to receive your certificate you must complete the 60 apprentice shift hours and attend the Friday workshops and Aug 20th field trip. You must be on time for the workshops. Lateness of more than 30 minutes without notification will be considered an absence. Should you miss two workshops, you will not receive your certificate. You will be responsible for signing in and recording your own hours.

Garden Use
Our perennial garden in Loyola is a wonderful and established space that flourishes each year with care from our staff and apprentices. It is, however, a teaching garden and therefore changes hands each year. As an apprentice this year, you have free use of the site during your shift hours and whenever you feel motivated to come out to the garden with staff! After this year of your training, new apprentices will be using the space.

In addition, there will be opportunities for you to bring herbs home with you, but please consult with the coordinator before taking items home. These are used for community workshops or sold to cover operating costs of our continued programming, so we will need to check our stock before dividing up materials.

Student-Led Workshop/Project
This is a very exciting and important part of the program. It is where you, the apprentices, get to experience the excitement of working with people who want to learn more about herbalism! All CFS students will host a workshop or create an agreed-upon project in the Fall. Each person will decide upon a topic related to herbalism that is of interest to them and will design and facilitate a workshop/project that presents this topic. Workshops will be offered free of charge and will be open to community to attend and will be given on our sites or at a community organization. You have the option of giving your workshop alone or in a small group/pair. We will provide some options for locations for where you could give your workshop. Do not be afraid, this is a very fun part of the school!

Covid-19 Protocols
As the public health situation continues to evolve, we thank you in advance for your understanding as we adapt our plans accordingly. We will keep you updated on our Covid-19 safety measures. If you have symptoms, test positive or have been in contact with someone who tests positive, please be in touch with the coordinator and do not come to class.

Mutual Respect
As a group we will develop a group agreement on the first day of class to define how we want to learn together, however we have a zero tolerance policy for harassment, inclusive of racism, sexism, homophobia or transphobia (etc). Our program is meant to be a space where we can learn together, so we ask for a commitment to mutual respect.

We acknowledge that Concordia University is located on unceded Indigenous lands and give honor and gratitude to those who stewarded and continue to steward this land. The Kanien’kehá:ka Nation is recognized as the custodians of the lands and waters of Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal, historically known as a gathering place for many First Nations.