Education

I’m an agriculture consultant with a passion for sustainable and organic farming, I’ve had the privilege of learning from various platforms and experts. However, taking the Permaculture Pro course at Oregon State University under the guidance of Javan Bernakevitch was nothing short of a transformative experience.

Javan’s teaching style is both comprehensive and engaging, bridging theory and practice seamlessly. He doesn’t just teach permaculture; he lives it, and that authenticity shines through every lesson. His depth of understanding is unparalleled, and he has an innate ability to make even complex topics accessible. Whether it was soil health, water systems, or designing a regenerative landscape, Javan offered practical insights I could immediately implement in my consultancy work and toward my goal of making Nepal an organic nation.

The course material is meticulously curated, keeping in mind not just the ecological but also the economic aspects of farming—something that resonates well with real-world applications. I came into the course with a solid background and high expectations, and I can confidently say that this course exceeded them all. The lessons I’ve learned and the skills I’ve acquired are directly contributing to my efforts to develop a model farm and are indispensable in my consultancy.

If you’re serious about permaculture, sustainable agriculture, or even if you’re a beginner eager to learn, this course is worth every minute and every penny.

Thank you, Javan and Oregon State University, for an unparalleled learning journey. I am excited to apply these permaculture principles in my pursuit of a more sustainable future for all.

The last six months were the most enjoyable experience and productive time in my life!

This course was the best experience of all online courses I’ve had. I will definitely follow the next courses available and hopefully sign up for them.

It was amazing to observe how the various topics learned throughout the course came together in the last assignment and formed the concept plan for my garden. Each design element is the outcome of new knowledge gained throughout the course and has a function which is well understood and accepted by us owners.

I am really proud of the outcome and grateful for the opportunity to attend this course, and I will miss this time a lot.

After being captivated with permaculture by some books. I found that OSU PDC was about to start so I dove right in. I didn’t regret it, as they did a great job guiding me through principles of permaculture and in showing me techniques for land design.

The Project Portfolio Template created in Google Slides was a nice straight forward format for quickly presenting work and for creating accurate maps.

Javan brought energy and a multitude of personal experiences to the zoom meetings, and was very helpful in clearing my doubt and giving me ideas for my design.

I would definitely recommend the course to anybody wanting to apply the principles of permaculture to their lives and landscapes.

First of all, thank you very much for everything! Going through this course under your guidance has been an amazing experience and a true pleasure.

My experience in the class surpassed my expectations. Javan is an excellent teacher – he wants students to succeed and it shows through his encouragement. He works with students at their level. It was great hearing him share his knowledge and expand upon questions asked by students. His passion for the subject is contagious.

I left the course feeling inspired and with a great foundation. Going forward, I know what steps I can take to further my experience in the field.

Javan, man, it was a tremendous blessing and joy taking this course under your care and stewardship. Thank you so much for sharing yourself and your passion with us. I really appreciate all of your advice, the questions you posed that allowed me to look from various vantage points, and the many gems you bestowed upon us during office hours. Permaculture is pretty new to me, I’m still reading Mollison’s book, so I really can’t thank you enough because you didn’t take a second of time with us for granted and you were a wellspring of knowledge. I know that in everything you did you wanted to give us a significant step up in our abilities as future designers and to those like me who are so new to the world of Permaculture, that was HUGE. You played a crucial role in helping me develop my observational skills and the freedom you allowed us to have with our presentation opened up to some surprising places of creativity within me. It was such a fun, challenging and rewarding experience and I’m so excited to continue with my education, design and journey.

Your feedback meant a lot to me, and it has since week one. My wife listens to your feedback videos with me, and your encouragement meant a great deal to her too. You didn’t know it, but she was also a student of yours this year and she says she likes the cut of your jib!

I wanted to express my gratitude to you for being an amazing & nurturing mentor and grader. I learned so much every time I was able to attend your office hours, and I always appreciated the feedback from your videos. I have to fight a lot of critical thoughts and every time I watched your feedback videos I felt a surge of pride, inspiration, and motivation.  Thank you so much for your wisdom, kindness, and patience. I expect to grow within this field and I hope to cross paths again the future.

This has not only been a course on a new topic, it taught me perseverance and turned my whole life around – new outlook on life, new country, new job, new steeper slope here in the Italian alps (I was worried about the little slope in the garden on the design site in the north of Sweden). I feel hopeful for the future, inspired and happy to have finished the studies, and I have learnt lots about permaculture – and most importantly it has inspired me to continue learning more. My instructor has been super supportive, very constructive, and shared many tips which I as a newbie did not think of, a wealth of knowledge which has been so appreciated. Thank you Javan.