By Glen Herbert

Liang Cheng arrived at RLC in 2002 for his grade 12 year. He had been living in Hong Kong when his father, an educational consultant, came across a listing for Rosseau Lake College. It seemed unique and appealing, so they filled out an application. He says, “I was down for trying something different.”

It really was. “The outtrips were my first experiences spending any extended time in nature." He’d been camping before, and to Ontario, but this was a new experience. “And I think the exposure ignited a love for the outdoors and a care for the environment. Which I think was already nascent, but it really promoted that in a big way. And that really stuck with me, and guided my adult life. It put me on an environmental track.”

Now, twenty or so years later, he’s still on that track, though there have been some twists and turns along the way. First he took a degree in environmental science at Waterloo, and then an internship in international development in Peru. “That was formative,” he says, “in that I realised I didn’t want to be doing international development. I wanted to be doing something more local.”

Good to know. 

So, he then spent two seasons working on farms in eastern Canada. “The organic farming model is a tough one,” he says. “It wasn’t super appealing to me to start a farm, and to start selling vegetables to make a living.” Also good to know.

But some things caught his eye, like the impact that the outdoors can have on a child’s life. On family-run farms, he saw kids living the farm life, close to the earth. In his travels, he saw school garden programs, everything from small hobby plots to larger, more intensive initiatives. There, too, the impact was noticeable. Kids were getting their hands dirty, but also working closely with nature and natural systems, and seeing where food comes from. “Integrating those things”—outdoors, farming, learning— “was an idea, and I thought it made a lot of sense.”

Young Roots Farm

Back in Montreal Liang started reaching out to camps to see if anyone would be interested in creating a teaching farm. In 2012, he partnered with Camp Amy Molson to develop what became the Young Roots Farm. A working farm, it would teach young people about growing food, regional ecology, and plant biology. They would learn by doing. They would also learn about healthy eating, with many campers trying vegetables, such as kohlrabi, for the first time.

“The philosophy of Amy Molson is really much like Rosseau,” says his sister Victoria. “It is really striking to see these very urban kids learn not to be afraid of nature … because it’s so far from what they know, and then just come to love it.”

Liang says, “it was really my life’s work for ten years.” As the program grew they developed the ability to cook on site, over open fires. They made salads and sauces and pesto. “It’s going from this living thing that’s in the ground, you know, going from a dirty vegetable to something that’s recognizable to them. I think it continues to be a powerful way to build healthy habits,” and lasting learning experiences. 

“I’m proud of it,” he says, as well he should be. Still, there were other interests, and he followed those into a master’s program in agroforestry, the intentional integration of forests and farming systems. Part of the goal is to find more sustainable farming practices, ones more in tune with the eastern Canadian environment. He’s currently funding his degree by working at a cannabis producer.

In combination with his degree, he’s looking at establishing crops in line with the agroforestry model. Things like ginseng and chestnuts. He’s the kind of person that can make chestnuts seem fascinating, perhaps precisely because they are. Once decimated by blight in North America, they are an important crop in much of the temperate world. People like Liang are working to bring them back. “It’s a slower business model,” he says. It can take 15 years for trees to yield, though they then yield for a century. “It also is not extractive. It can be done gradually and be profitable. … I’ve been looking for projects that have those traits. Ones where the profits don't need to come quickly. And where you can incorporate other goals into what the business is trying to achieve.”

"The Career Myth"

Speaking with Liang got me thinking of two diagrams our academic advisor, Jane Audet, has in her office. They sit beneath the title “The Career Myth.” One diagram, “The Way it’s Supposed to Be,” shows a straight line of arrows leading from high school to retirement. Get a degree, get a job, retire.

The other, “The Way it is for Most,” shows a tangle of arrows as snarled as a ball of yarn. They point to setbacks, successes, and decisions we make along the way. “You know, sometimes you go backwards, sometimes you go forwards,” Jane says. “It may not be the same path as somebody else.”

Liang seems like the very definition of the second path. Finding opportunities, following ideas, indulging passions and curiosities. He's farmed, and taught, and started programs. He's planted ginseng, farmed cannabis, and studied chestnuts. He's finishing his second degree, travelled the world, and completed an internship in Peru. Now in his 30s, there's still so much ahead. And it began here, at RLC.  

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