After 30 years as a registered nurse, Janice Brooks leaned into something entirely new and earned the first certificate in horticulture at the University of the Virgin Islands last spring.
Beginning in 2020, the School of Agriculture has offered five bachelor’s degrees, four associate degrees, and six certificates in various agriculture disciplines. Brooks completed the required 16 credits last May for her certificate. In December, two women earned associate degrees.
Brooks credits the St. George Village Botanical Garden for sparking her interest in a new educational focus.
“My interest in medicinal plants began when I discovered the medicinal garden area at the Botanical Garden – all the varieties used by ancestors to maintain health,” she told The Source. A brochure from the Garden lists around 50 plants and herbs with healing qualities.
Born on St. Thomas, Brooks remembers, as a young child, her great aunt, Edith L. Williams — the former principal at the James Madison School. Williams introduced students and parents to planting and agriculture in the school’s garden. Notably, she began the first school lunch program in the territory around 1925.
Brooks said her great aunt’s favorite saying was, “Feed not only the body. The mind must also be nourished.” (This is also the inscription on William’s statue, which is located across from the U.S. Post Office in Charlotte Amalie.)
Williams is known and remembered as a women’s rights advocate. The Virgin Islands became part of the United States in 1917, but V.I. women weren’t automatically allowed to vote. In 1936, after advocating for the vote locally with other women, Williams became the first woman to register to vote in the territory.
The first career Brooks chose was to become a registered nurse. She went to school in Miami and practiced there for 30 years before returning to St. Croix in 1991.
The retired R.N. may have inherited some of William’s quest for knowledge about food and healing plants. After visiting the Botanical Gardens, she enrolled in the School of Agriculture.
Her favorite UVI course was soil science, she said. She also studied plant science, agriculture, horticulture and careers in agriculture.
“Most modern medicine came from bush,” Books said.
She said St. Croix was once known as the “breadbasket of the Caribbean” because it was much easier to grow produce than on the hills of St. Thomas.
The retiree plans to continue her studies and wants to learn more about medicinal plants. With a few fellow students, she said they hope to learn how to use the herbs and plants used by other cultures and Virgin Islanders slaves.
“They passed the knowledge verbally and we need more research,” Brooks said.
To expand her learning, Brooks is hoping a course on local medicinal plants will be offered soon to UVI’s School of Agriculture’s curriculum. She’s especially interested to learn if soursop may be a new treatment for cancer.
