Kuumba Youth Liberation Academy (KYLA) is a Afrikan-Centered homeschool platform, located in Louisville, KY. They provide cultural education for students in the community to promote confidence, self-directed learners and leadership. Their focus is Afrikan culture, Afrikan history, and entrepreneurship. The students who attend the school range from third grade to 12th grade and they all attend the same class. They study a variety of disciplines from martial arts, chess, drumming and dance, violin, math, science, history,etc. They have a full time teacher but supplement their curriculum with community members and non-profit organizations that come periodically to give instruction. Kuumba Academy's founder Laila Hampton-El reached out to KSU Extension agent Lewis and asked for assistance with gardening classes for the students, as they had access to a garden near their campus. Agent Lewis conducted a 6 week gardening and science program for the students. Students participated in classes on:

• Seed anatomy and germination
• Watering, Irrigation and Weather
• Weed Identification and Foraging
• Leave taxonomy and Tree ID
• Microscopy

The 6-week course concluded with a field trip to KSU's outdoor environmental education center. This provided an opportunity for the students, who reside in an urban environment the chance to experience something very different than they are used to and to add to that, many parents also came on the trip and learned first hand with their children. Kentucky State Provided the transportation to the site where the students had an educational and action packed day learning about water quality. They did a simulation of the impact of human behaviors on the environment and water sheds, followed by a hike to local creek to test the water quality by observing the various animal life in and around the creek. Following the hike the students had lunch and then went fishing at the lake on the property. For many of the youth, it was their first time ever fishing. The experience was an eye opener for the students with many of them expressing how much they learned and how they wanted to do more outdoor activities like that. The director of the academy, Ms. Hampton-El was so impressed by the entire program that she asked Agent Lewis if he would join her board as the director of science. The impact of having someone in the academic profession providing research-based information and college level resources to a home-school collective really improved the quality of the education the students received in that area. Hopefully KSU will be able to connect with more home school groups in the future, who may be lacking in some educational areas. There is a real need that all areas of extension could help fill.