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Still Growing One Year Later: Catching up with WAI-funded Teens Grow Green Apprentice

Plants grow. People do too.

The first time Breasia Hall walked into the headquarters of Teens Grow Greens (TGG) back in 2024, she remembers how shy she was, choosing not to introduce herself to anyone—not even the other teens sitting at her table.

“I couldn’t talk to anyone,” she says. “I was so nervous!”

But the seemingly simple act of talking with people is one of the many skills Hall has honed over the last two years as a horticulture apprentice with TGG.

In fact, when she returned to start her second year in the program, she says she was “totally fine,” striking up conversations with everyone she encountered.

Now, as a third-year apprentice, Hall’s confidence has sprouted to a whole new level due to the experience she’s gained and the responsibilities she’s been given to support the younger staff and help keep the program running smoothly.

“[This year], I feel more confident in my role,” she says. “I have a true sense of belonging to TGG now because I’m so familiar with it, and it’s become part of my life.”

Charlie Uhlein, co-founder and executive director of TGG, has witnessed Hall’s growth firsthand.

"Throughout her time, we have consistently put Breasia in leadership positions, and now she’s in a position where she mentors the interns and younger apprentices,” Uhlein says. “She thrives in these roles, and we are so lucky to have her as part of [TGG]."

These are the kinds of wins TGG helps to harvest. The Milwaukee-based urban-agriculture nonprofit was founded 12 years ago to help teens gain work experience and sharpen career (and life) skills like leadership and public speaking.

TGG grew through funding from the Employ Milwaukee and the Worker Advancement Initiative, one of the three programs that make up the Workforce Solutions Initiative, a $168 million investment by Governor Tony Evers to support innovative pandemic recovery efforts. Employ Milwaukee received funding through the Worker Advancement Initiative to help those who were disproportionately impacted by the pandemic and provided funding to TGG to help the nonprofit reach more youth and teens in the Milwaukee area.

Planting seeds

Hall’s day-to-day responsibilities change depending on which of the three locations she’s working out of that day and the time of year. “At the beginning of the year, I did a lot of watching over the first-years and teaching them the things we do before opening the greenhouse like seeding and transplanting,” she says. “And after they got the hang of that, my role became more support-based—keeping them on track to becoming more familiar with the environment.”

Hall says she’s first in line to address any questions or concerns from the younger students—anything from working in the green house to helping summer interns get acclimated. “If I don’t know [the answer], then we turn to someone else,” she says.

At the TGG location in West Lawn, Hall still helps younger apprentices to learn new skills and helps them plan their Pitch Fest ideas.

Pitch Fest, also known as the annual Changemaker event at TGG, was piloted in 2024. Modeled after the television show “Shark Tank,” it was created to give teens a chance to help solve an ongoing problem in their community by pitching a solution they’ve designed.

Hall’s horticulture team volunteered to pilot Pitch Fest and decided to focus on sexually transmitted infection (STI) and teen pregnancy prevention. She and her team members learned different research methods and discovered ways to turn findings into feasible solutions.

"We decided to focus on STI and teen pregnancy prevention by introducing a better sex-ed curriculum for students in the community,” she says. After spending a couple of weeks conducting research, Hall’s team presented their project to a panel of judges.

“We won first place,” she says with a smile. “And earned $1,000 each.”

She also smiles when asked about her favorite items grown in the garden. “My favorite plants are pothos and tradescantias,” she says. “We also grow a bunch of vegetables—that’s what people come in for.”

TGG grows and sells everything from collard greens and peppers (including ghost peppers and Carolina Reapers!), to okra, corn, squash, and a variety of tomatoes—helping to improve food access and affordability while boosting the city’s economic activity.

At Webers Green House, customers will purchase foods cultivated by TGG in plant form. “So, their job is to pick out whatever they want and after they get checked out, all of the purchased items have to go home into a garden bed, or some kind of transplanted pot,” she says.

Sowing the future

Even though Hall’s still enjoying the summer months at TGG, she’s already thinking about what’s next, particularly her plans after high school. She’ll begin her senior year this fall, will be focused on applying to colleges in the coming months, and has plans to eventually attend veterinary school. And thanks to TGG, she’s been exposed to other career paths that have made a lasting impression on her, one being water chemistry.

“We went on a lot of field trips connected to water quality in Milwaukee, and how the system of getting our water works, and at first, I was like ‘I’d never be interested in this—it’s water, right!?’” she says. But Hall says that after joining “Ways of Change,” a newer program connected to TGG, she participated in the program’s water quality track and became hooked. “If I hadn’t already dedicated myself to becoming a veterinarian, I’d definitely be a water chemist,” she says.

But for now, she says she’s making sure to enjoy her final year at TGG and is especially thankful for all the program has to offer outside of her everyday duties, including the competitive yet fun-filled tennis tournaments, the outdoorsy activities like kayaking, and the career exploration field trips.

“Overall, my experience has been great,” Hall says. “TGG has become so important to me. I don’t know how I would’ve turned out without it. I just can’t imagine.”

When asked if there’s anything else she wants readers to know, she quickly adds that one day she will have her own “super-giant” garden.

“But only with things from Webers Greenhouse,” she says with a grin.

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