My name is Joe Granger and I am a third-year student at East West. I am thankful to be acknowledged as student of the month amongst our network of talented healers.
I found East West at a very interesting time in my life. After graduating from high school, I knew that I had no business in a stuffy classroom. I moved to a small town at the foothills of Cascade Mountains in beautiful Washington state to attend a wilderness skills college. I learned a lot of fascinating and inspiring things like outdoor survival and wildlife tracking, but as some of you may guess, I really enjoyed learning about the herbs. I still remember very well my first experience with some friends on a several-day-long hike. My friend cut his foot in a river and the next day he had an infection. We pulled out the infection in half a day with three changes of fresh yarrow poultice. Amazing!
It’s an honor connecting people in need to the healing wisdom long shared by our ancestors and empowering communities to take control of their health and return to nature. I recently moved to northern Virginia from College Park, Maryland, where I was working at a wonderful and cozy herb shop called Smile. I lived on location and was the personal grounds keeper of a beautiful herb garden and was fortunate enough to receive some tutelage from the shops founder, Mr. Tom Wolfe. Now I am working on opening an herb shop in a market with a partner of mine. Very exciting times.
After graduating from the East West program, I want to study acupuncture in hopes of making a well-rounded practice for myself as a healer.
I hope all of my East West herb friends reading this are doing well and I want to also say thanks to the great East West staff who inspire us and spend so much time molding us into fine herbalists.