Three New West High School students enjoyed the fruits of their labor over spring break during a trip to New York City largely funded by proceeds from the school’s hydroponic gardening system.
The trip was a part of the school’s collaboration with New York Sun Works, according to New West Principal Mike Hanson. New York Sun Works is a nonprofit organization that provides hydroponic gardening systems, training and relevant curricula to public schools in the New York City metro area. On the trip, New West students saw a hydroponic system at a school in the city, in addition to other experiences, such as seeing the 9/11 memorial pool and a Broadway show.
“If you can take students on a trip like that and broaden their horizons, then I think we should do it as often as possible,” Hanson said.
The trip was a year in the making, and Hanson said the seed was first planted when one New West student asked, “What do we get out of this?” about all the effort students put into the school’s hydroponic system and selling the lettuce it produces.
Seniors James Vigil, Iin Roche and Jay Billings have put the most work into the hydroponic system and to selling the lettuce, so when the idea for a trip funded by the system came up, Hanson said he told them the system would need to raise enough proceeds for it to be possible.
The trip was part of a larger collaboration that the school has entered into with New York Sun Works. With that collaboration, New West science teacher Tara Hall said, the school hopes to some day offer a professional certification in greenhouse lighting and systems engineering. That program is being created also in collaboration with the University of Wyoming.
“Hopefully, we can be the pilot for offering that outside of the New York metro area,” Hanson said.
New West is the first school west of the Mississippi to collaborate with New York Sun Works.
New West purchased its hydroponic gardening system using a portion of a culinary grant it received from the Elbogen Foundation in 2024. The hydroponic gardening system not only has a class tied to it, but it produces some ingredients used in the school’s culinary program, as well as selling some to support the school.
Vigil said the school’s lettuce and some of its herbs are sold to The Occidental Saloon, Pie Zanos and 307 Tavern. They are also sold at Branch and Vine Herbs, Buffalo Gardens, the summer Wednesday Markets in Crazy Woman Square and the Playhouse Saturday Markets. The school also started a limited home-delivery service where students drop off lettuce directly at people’s houses and to Meadowlark Elementary School.
In addition, the school donates fresh lettuce for all of the lunchtime salad bars in Johnson County School District No. 1 schools in Buffalo and to the Bread of Life Food Pantry.
Vigil said the school harvests roughly 40 pounds of lettuce per week.
Hanson said that in addition to the educational benefits from the hydroponic systems, the product provides a unique fundraising avenue for New West where people get something directly in return for their support.
“It’s a great fundraising opportunity for us, especially as a small school, because this community gets hit up for so many things,” Hanson said.
The collaboration started after Hanson and Hall realized, while getting the school’s hydroponic gardening system set up and building a curriculum, that they were likely “reinventing the wheel,” Hanson said. In a search of existing hydroponic-based curriculum, Hanson said he discovered New York Sun Works.
Hanson cold-called them last spring after students pitched the idea of visiting a school in New York that is using their curriculum and one of their systems.
“I just said, ‘Hey, we’re in Wyoming. That might be weird to you, but we see you’re doing some really cool things,’” Hanson said.
Hanson said he expected it would be a longshot on whether he would hear back or not, and surprisingly he did.
During the trip, the students, Hanson and Hall visited a New York public school that was using one of New York Sun Works’ systems. The biggest difference between the New York school’s and New West’s systems was size.
“They make a ton of use of the space that they have and of what they have access to there, but I definitely thought, man, we’ve got a good space here at New West for sure,” Hanson said.
While their system was a lot smaller than the one that New West houses at Buffalo Gardens, the New York City school’s system was an aquaponic system as opposed to a hydroponic system, Vigil said. Aquaponics are largely the same as hydroponics in that the plant’s nutrients come from water continually running through the system, but instead of putting in nutrients, an aquaponics system supports fish in its water tank that excrete the needed plant nutrients.
That was cool to see, Vigil said, and something the school had looked into starting.
But beyond seeing the system, Vigil said it was great getting to see New York, the farthest east he’s ever been.
“It was cool to see the city,” Vigil said. “I’ve never been in a place with that many people.”
Hanson said the trip was a great way to show what can happen with a good bit of effort.
“I think it’s really good to see if you put the work in, something really good can come of it,” Hanson said.
While Roche, Vigil and Billings are graduating this year, Hall and Hanson said they are confident the hydroponics program will carry on.
“Quite a few underclassmen have shown interest,” Hall said. “They’re going to have to fill some really big shoes.”