The forgotten boy who transformed vanilla
(And why it matters today)
How did a 12-year-old boy revolutionize the global vanilla industry with just his thumb and a blade of grass? And what do New York City high schoolers and Sierra Leone preschoolers have in common when it comes to plants?
In 1841, on the small island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean, a 12-year-old boy named Edmund Albius made a discovery that would transform the global spice trade. Using a blade of grass and his thumb, he perfected a technique for hand-pollinating vanilla orchids – a method so elegant and effective that it's still used today. This small innovation by a child born into slavery who never learned to read or write turned vanilla from a rare luxury into one of the world's most well-known and beloved flavors.
Nearly two centuries later, in a New York City classroom, high schoolers hold vanilla pods in their hands, hear Edmund’s story, and write poetry about their own memories and experiences with the orchid’s sweet fruit.
This connection between plants and human potential is at the heart of two innovative Columbia Global initiatives. Planting Stories: Seeds of Diaspora in New York invites high schoolers to explore the deep connections between plants, history, and storytelling; while Project SHINE! in Sierra Leone nurtures a new generation of young gardeners by weaving health, nutrition, and education into the roots of their communities.
If a plant could talk
New York is a city bursting with more than 2,000 plant species and nearly 800 languages. For generations, people have carried seeds and stories across oceans. But over time, many of those stories get lost, and the plants that once held special meaning become just another part of the landscape.
Planting Stories: Seeds of Diaspora was born from a conversation among three Columbia professors who, at first glance, had little in common: Dr. Lynnette Widder, a sustainability expert, Anelise Chen, a fiction writer, and Dr. Ana Paulina Lee, a scholar of Latin American cultures and literatures. Though they came from different fields, they were drawn to the shared idea of how plants hold history. With support and funding from Columbia World Projects, they turned this idea into a curriculum that connects New York high school students to history, culture, and migration through creative writing and botanical exploration.
The lesson plans developed by the project invite students to listen — not just with their ears, but with their senses. As students touch, smell, and taste, they uncover forgotten histories, like the forgotten story of Edmund or how the Olmecs were the first people to cultivate cacao (800 years before the Mayans). Through this process, they also become keepers of knowledge, passing these stories to a new generation.
Could a child change the way an entire country eats?
Half a world away, another story is unfolding — one where a garden is helping shape a healthier future for children in Sierra Leone.
Sierra Leone has one of the highest child mortality rates in the world, with malnutrition playing a significant role. As well, despite its rich, fertile soil, the country imports millions of tons of agricultural goods each year, as its agriculture industry remains underdeveloped. With these two challenges in mind, Project SHINE! was created to bring health, nutrition, and education into schools to support children’s well-being. Funded and supported by Columbia World Projects, the program was designed with insights from Columbia researchers and is led on the ground by ICAP at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.
Piloted at a preschool in the Port Loko district of Sierra Leone, this initiative introduced clean bathrooms, safe kitchens, and regular visits from community health workers into the school. But most importantly, it brought a teaching garden, where little hands dig into the soil, learning to grow and recognize nutritious foods that will later be a part of their lunch. Guided by research from Columbia scholars in public health, nutrition, and early childhood development, the garden is more than a source of food — it’s a living classroom, ensuring that students not only gain hands-on experience but also develop eating habits that promote better health.
History has shown what children armed with the right knowledge can do. Today, youth in NY are using plants to trace their journeys across continents and connect with their own cultural roots. Meanwhile, a new generation in Sierra Leone is learning to work with the land, laying the ground for healthier and more self-sufficient communities.
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