Summer is a time for growth for our plants as well as our students. This past summer, six undergraduate students all with passions in horticulture, took part in the first Landscape Arboretum Scholars Internship. The Landscape Arboretum Scholars worked on several projects throughout their summer at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. These students are tasked with a service project, something that relates to the work they are doing during the academic year. These projects range in topics from worms to trees. The students also worked with all the gardeners, rotating from trained gardener to trained gardener, which enabled them to see different areas of the expansive arboretum and learn many different skills.
As the students reflect on this opportunity we would like to thank all involved who made it happen.
Aaron Semington, Environmental Sciences Policy & Management: This internship was incredibly self-directed and self-lead. I received a lot of input from experts but ultimately it was down to me, to figure out what would be best for the particular areas of land. And I found that incredibly invaluable to me and my future.
Cody Lachinski, Plant Science: This experience has taught me a lot. . . working around with all the different gardeners has been really great. I really feel like that [this experience] will help me going ahead in the future.
Jesy Stortenbecker, Forest and Natural Resource Management: This summer really gave me a hands-on opportunity to experience more into the herbaceous plant world. I’ve learned more about a lot of different plants and it’s kind of opened my eyes to what it’s like to work in a public garden and what that could mean for a future career.
Gianna Epich, Plant Science: I’m glad I got the internship at the Arboretum because I got to learn about specific plants and it was really hands-on. It was really helpful to get that experience to talk to gardeners who work every day on the same plants.
Ben Lehman, Plant Science: The thing I enjoyed the most about this internship was that I spent most of the weeks with Erin the Integrated Pest Management Manager (IPM). It’s a really cool perspective because she gets to communicate with all of the gardeners so I got to see everywhere within the arboretum and work in all the gardens.
Ben Ziegler Plant Science: Rotating around to every crew, one per week, lent a lot of experience across every aspect of gardening that you could have. It was a really valuable experience.
Cayla Smith, Plant Science: I feel like I have a huge jump start on my education going into my sophomore year. Even as a freshman it was really impactful and just being treated here as someone that is learning but still like my opinion is respected and valid was really cool.