Job Description
I am a soil nerd turned worm farmer! I raise red wiggler worms to help people compost as a way to improve soil health. I get to share about what soil is and why it matters to people and our environment in some pretty cool places like community centers and schools. I am a solo entrepreneur, so I also manage all aspects of running my business. This includes a lot of things you might not think about, like: advertising; photography; web design; accounting; coordinating packaging; networking; customer service; managing and acquiring product, packaging, and inputs. Worm farming is about 20% of my day-to-day tasks.
Relevant School Subjects
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Areas of Expertise
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Career Story
I went to the University of Saskatchewan after finishing high school near Edmonton. I went to school with the intention of becoming a large animal veterinarian. I didn't make it through my 1st year of university before realizing that I wasn't going to be able to follow that idea to the end. I was in the agriculture program and was very interested in my introductory soil science classes. I didn't really know much about soils going into university. I got an 4-year undergraduate degree in Soil Science (B.S.A.). I really enjoyed university, and worked for my favorite professors as a summer student, where I was able to help with research projects. I stayed at the University of Saskatchewan to do a masters degree in soil science. My research was on reclamation in the oil sands in northern Alberta. I got really involved with student government and university administration. While I was finishing my masters, I worked for the university doing student recruitment. I was really interested in helping students succeed at university. As I was wrapping up my masters, I got married and moved to follow my husband's career opportunities. I worked in university student recruitment at the University of Northern BC in Prince George. Then I lived in Ottawa for a year, where I struggled to find work in environmental fields as there were massive layoffs in government and environmental fields at that time, and my fallback of university student services was more limited in Ottawa by my inability to speak French. As I was starting a family, I moved to Waterloo for a more permanent position for my kids' father.... Work continued to not work out the way that I had hoped and I found myself selling more worms than I could keep up with by posting on kijiji. I formalized this plan and started a website, committing to being an full-time entrepreneur.