Edith Mugisha, shown last fall in the Harper Grows Community Garden, is a nursing
student at Harper College. After receiving support for her family from Hawks Care
Resource Center, she wanted to give back by volunteering at the garden, which provides
produce to students seeking assistance through Hawks Care.
Edith Mugisha is a caretaker. In her native Uganda, she supported individuals with disabilities in her job as an assistant registration officer. After moving to Palatine, she became a life skills instructor at Little City, an organization that supports children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. As a Harper College student, she is working towards an associate’s degree in nursing and hopes to focus on mental health.
So it’s no surprise that Edith was also drawn to caring for the Harper Grows Community Garden.
The 39-year-old mother of three decided to volunteer in the garden after discovering hard-to-find dinosaur kale growing there. In Uganda, Edith had a small farm. She said working with Harper’s garden gave her the opportunity to get back to the work she loves and give back to the garden that had given her so much.
“Just to have a feel of the garden,” she said. “It was just exciting to touch the dirt again and enjoy the soil.”
The Harper Grows initiative began in 2024 when Harper professors and avid gardeners Ginger McHugh-Kurtz, Pearl Ratunil and Julie Ellefson met to discuss how excess produce from their home gardens could benefit students. After partnering with the University of Illinois Extension, which provided training, tools and starter plants, the initiative has expanded with 50 volunteers, faculty and staff growing 300 pounds of produce last year, benefitting Harper’s Hawks Care Resource Center.
The garden is adding seven more planting beds this spring, funded in part by a $500 donation by Harper’s Student Government Association. One of the beds will be wheelchair accessible.
McHugh-Kurtz, the Harper Grows coordinator, said Edith is devoted to giving back and was a top volunteer for watering and harvesting in the garden during the 2025 growing season.
“One day, I went out to the garden and saw that all of these tomatoes had all been given slings of support,” McHugh-Kurtz said. “I was really interested in that, so I asked her about it, and she told me she wanted to support the stems more because the tomatoes are so heavy. She took initiative, and most likely it was something that she had done back home.”
Volunteers grew 300 pounds of produce in the Harper Grows Community Garden in 2025.
The plan is for seven more planting beds this spring.
In her native Uganda, Edith had earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration, completed postgraduate studies (equivalent to a master’s degree) in community-based rehabilitation and worked as an assistant registration officer, dealing with intellectual property, company and civil registration. When she and her family settled in Palatine in 2022, it wasn’t long before she realized her degrees and skills would not transfer to the U.S.
At first, she wasn’t sure she wanted to start all over again, but after helping at a graduation party, Edith received a call that changed her life. The host reached out to thank her, then asked if she was in school.
“I told her no. For what? I did enough school in Uganda, but she said this was different,” Edith said. “She said, ‘Get up and go to Harper, and then call me back.’ Honestly, I was just being obedient. Where I come from, when an elder speaks, you do what they say, but then a part of me wanted more.”’
Viewing it as an opportunity to find herself, she and her then-husband headed to Harper to enroll. His sudden refusal to provide the help she needed caused their marriage to come to an unexpected end, markinghe beginning of her journey as a second-career student and single parent to her 17-year-old daughter and two sons, ages 10 and 8.
Seeking an opportunity to find herself, Edith Mugisha enrolled at Harper College and
is now pursuing a degree in nursing. A single parent to three children, Edith found
support from Harper's Women's Program and Hawks Care, which partners with the Harper
Grows Community Garden.
Seeking support, she learned about Harper’s Women’s Program and Hawks Care, which has helped provide Edith and her family with food, access to child care and connections to community resources.
“I had to start afresh,” she said, “but it was an easy start because I wasn’t alone.”
In the process, she made a special connection to the Harper Grows garden, which supplies fresh fruits and vegetables to the Hawks Care pantry.
“I needed to be part of the process that makes that food,” she said. “They were doing so much for me. I get to do what I love while being of use and giving back.”
It’s Edith’s nature to be giving. Years earlier, Edith had cared for her ailing father, changing his IV when he couldn’t make it to the hospital. That experience, combined with years of working with people with disabilities, helped her choose nursing as a new career.
Edith started Harper’s Nursing Program last fall and said her future goals include being the best nurse she can be while being present for her children.
“I’ve seen people feel better just by seeing me smile, especially when they’re in a storm,” she said. “I want to be able to sit with these people and see them feel better even before the medication kicks in. If my smile can start the process, then I want to be that nurse.
“And then definitely the best mom ever. On top of all the stuff I do, I volunteer at my children’s school. So, I just want to be that mother, that nurse, that ray of hope that things can be done.”