Miles Lee grew curious about soil quality, food waste and the decomposition process after smelling the unpleasant odors emitted from the landfill across the road from his northern Georgia home. He followed his curiosity and along the way, he discovered his passion for composting.
“The landfill was getting bigger and bigger, and it got me thinking about the amount of trash and waste we’re creating,” says Lee, an alumnus of the Arabia Mountain FFA in Lithonia, Ga. “In middle school, I learned how worms break down food through a vermicomposting project. I realized there are better ways to manage waste and care for our planet by reducing our impact.”
When he entered high school in 2017, Lee joined Arabia Mountain FFA and, as a freshman, launched a composting supervised agricultural experience (SAE). Lee built a composting bin from donated wood pallets. He began adding fruits and vegetables from the cafeteria and food waste from local businesses, including coffee grounds from Starbucks.
The summer before his junior year, a storm destroyed his bin and Lee had to rebuild. Rather than seeing this as a setback, he turned it into an opportunity to create something even better.
“In 2019, I raised about $600 in donations to build a more permanent composting structure,” Lee says. “I trained other agriculture students to use and maintain it, and it’s still on the Arabia Mountain High School campus today.”
His FFA advisor, Sabrina Davis, knew he’d created something special. She encouraged Lee to apply for a National FFA Agricultural Proficiency Award during his senior year. He was a national finalist in 2021.
“Without Ms. Davis, I never would have applied for the award in the first place,” Lee says. “She saw something in me and pushed me to reach goals I didn’t believe I could achieve. Now my legacy lives on at my alma mater, and I can say I was the first national proficiency award finalist in the environmental and natural resource systems category from the state of Georgia — that’s incredible.”
Lee is majoring in sustainable agriculture with a concentration in plant and soil science at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. He is excited to begin an internship with the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Resources Conservation Service and looks forward to building upon what he learned through his SAE.
“I never thought FFA would make such a significant impact on my life,” he says. “Not only did it help me find the career path I want to follow, but it also helped me grow my confidence and see how my actions could make a difference in my community and beyond.”
