Jenna Siddeeq is a double-major in Visual Arts and Environmental Studies at Eckerd College, currently preparing to transfer to NCCU in the fall.

When Jenna attended Eckerd’s open house, she arrived with plans to become an art therapist — art had always been her sanctuary, especially as she navigated life with dyslexia. Everything shifted when she tasted nopal cactus at a community farm booth during the campus tour. In that moment, she discovered a new love for farming, and with it, a recognition of how deeply parallel these two fields are. Art transforms emotion and lived experience into something tangible. Agriculture, she found, is more than choosing which seeds to plant — it’s designing an entire ecosystem, where each harvest reflects the grower’s effort and curiosity. Both, in her view, feed the soul and nourish the body in different ways.

Jenna has worked at Eckerd’s community farm for two years and interned at the St. Pete Youth Farm, where she taught teens to farm while also bringing her creative eye to both spaces — designing signage and painting murals that reflect the spirit of each place.