PLANET Student Career Days (SCD’s) is an annual capstone event for our BYU-Idaho Horticulture Department.  2012 marked the 36th year of the event and was hosted by Kansas State University. Our eighteen member team, practiced all semester long to place well in the competition. The competition is designed to bring students in close proximity to industry. Generous green industry companies both sponsor and judge the twenty-eight competitive events giving them an up close and personal look at future interns and employees. One student said that the event “felt like a family reunion of the green industry”.  SCD’s allows students, industry and educational institutions to come together and aid in the common goal of raising professionalism in the green industry.

Our BYU-Idaho Horticulture Department is a “hands-on” department.  When we talk about designing, building or maintaining landscapes in the classroom, we immediately apply the book learning in our five acre demonstration garden where we marry both the art and science of horticulture. This garden is also where we install, plant, build and climb in preparation for many of the competitive events.

PLANET SCD’s events are structured so that applied university programs, like ours, does well in the competitive events, but there is so much more to the event.  Students continually talk about the scholarships they receive, the networking that takes place and the perspective they gain. Even though the economy is in a slump, each one of our students who sought employment or internships received opportunities from the best companies in the industry. PLANET SCD’s is truly a win-win for everyone involved. Thank you PLANET and Industry for making it all possible. Some representative student comments follow:

The decision to participate in PLANET Student Career Days was one of the best decisions I’ve made for my future career. It was a great opportunity to network with the cream of the crop in the green industry. On the trip I, was also able to develop great friendships that will last a lifetime. I would recommend PLANET Student Career Days to anyone who is serious about leading in their career path choice.
-Ethan Petersen

 

PLANET Student Career Days was a wonderful opportunity for me to network professionally, as well as to compete with students from schools across the nation.
-Lanae Senger

 

PLANET Student Career Days was an excellent opportunity to meet with industry leaders and network with them. Throughout the career fair we learned how big and vibrant the green industry is and during the competitive events we expanded our skill level and stretched our abilities to achieve great things. For those interested in succeeding in the green industry I would highly recommend going to Student Career Days.
-Melinda Snapp
 
 
To kick off the winter 2012 semester, Brother Toll’s Nursery Managementclass took a trip to Boise, ID to attend the Idaho Nursery and Landscaping Association (INLA) expo. This event is a great way to network with and see the different businesses around the country that are making waves in the Horticulture industry. The trip lasted three days and was filled with classes and seminars that were taught by leading national businesses. The students were taught about current topics that are pertinent to the Horticulture industry and various other subjects. The students were also able to attend the INLA Horticulture Trade Show and saw booths run by dozens of companies that provide materials and services for the Horticulture industry. The students had the opportunity to run a booth for the BYUI Horticulture Department. There are several scholarships that are offered through the INLA. Out of the four scholarships awarded, our students came home with three of them! The scholarships were $750 each and were given to Micah Woods, Ashley Barkow, and Ismael Ruelas. Bryan Randall also won an award in a plant identification contest. His prize was a brand new Kindle. The trip was fun for all who went and we are now looking forward for next year’s trip! For information on the scholarships and how to apply, click here.

 
 
     Very early in the morning on December 27th, 2011, several students and Sister Infanger left for Pasadena, California. They were headed to attend the annual Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade. The trip lasted one week and the students were able to participate in the making of the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade. Two of the participating students were new to the trip this year, Mallory Layton and Liesel Hirschi. They were able to go and work as floral designers on a few floats that the Phoenix Decorating company produced. Returning alumni were Hayley Sheppard, a senior at BYUI, and Kristin Wheelwright, a graduate of BYUI who flew all the way from New York to participate. Hayley and Kristin were actually hired by the Phoenix Decorating company to design and put together some of the floats. Because there were a few days before Sister Infanger and her students could start working on the floats, they spent some time sightseeing in sunny and warm Pasadena. They were able to go to the Griffith Observatory, they experienced the winter beach at Santa Monica Pier, and they even got to go shopping in the Old Downtown area! And then the work began. Out of the 44 floats that were in the Rose Parade, the Phoenix company produced 22 of them! Lucky Sister Infanger and crew got to work on these beautiful pieces of art! The theme of the parade this year was Just Imagine. It was held on Monday January 2, 2012 and the float decorators worked hard all Saturday night to be sure the floats were ready for final judging on Sunday. The four girls and Sister Infanger were separated onto teams that took care of several different floats. The work that they did largely included designing the floral part of the floats. Some of their other responsibilities included wiring, greening, and finally placing the flowers to bring to life the magnificent floats. The girls and Sister Infanger stayed in Pasadena for the final judging and then drove home that night. “I was actually home in time to watch it on TV! Which was weird!” stated Sister Infanger. The girls had worked hard and were rewarded with the satisfaction of several floats winning trophies in the tournament.

The floats, which the girls and Sister Infanger worked on, that received awards are as follows:

-Craftsman Trophy- Trader Joe’s “Hot Lava” (Sis. Infanger and Liesel)

-Directors’ Trophy- Bayer Advanced “Garden of Imagination” (Kristin)

-Judges’ Special Trophy- Donate Life “One More Day” (Sis. Infanger and Liesel)

-National Trophy- Western Asset Management “Imagine in America” (Mallory)

-Princesses’ Trophy- Rotary International “Inching Towards the End of Polio” (Hayley)

-Theme Trophy- US Bank “Idea Factory” (Kristin)

-Tournament Special Trophy- RFD-TV “Happy Trails” (Mallory)

(For a list of all the floats that received awards click here.)

     This trip was deemed very successful and was “a good experience” all around. The students were able to network with recognized national leaders in the Floral Design and Event industry. Attending this event gives them the opportunity to design in one of the largest floral events in the nation. Not only is this Pasadena trip an annual opportunity, but students from the Horticulture Department also have the opportunity to apply for and attend the annual Grand Floral Parade in Portland, Oregon. The application to the Portland event for this year will be available in March.

 
 
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On November the 7th the Hort. 322 class left, Phoenix bound. They spent the first day mostly in the car only stopping to eat and to play at Zion national park. Students loved hiking up the hill and beside the cliffs to get to that perfect spot to look down the canyon. Once back in the car they finished their first day travel to Marble Canyon, just inside the Arizona border and the starting point for the Grand Canyon. The group was off to an early start with breakfast in their bellies to the Grand Canyon. As they overlooked the Grand Canyon in sheer awe it erupted into a snowball fight. Students laughed along with professors as they joined in on the fun. After lunch on top of the rim they made their way to Phoenix, AZ. You would think they would have slept off their excitement, but not Horticulture students. The group was rearing to go bright and early in the morning. At Mountain States nursery they went to see their operations. Students learned about trademarks and patents on plants as well as irrigation solutions to problems. Some students’ favorite stop of the trip was AAA landscaping. After a tour of their office they heard some valuable advice from the owner as well as employees. With hard hats and orange vests they drove to Sky Harbor International Airport where AAA landscaping was working to put in an extensive landscape.  After a long day they settled for some grub and sleep. In the morning they headed over to the University of Phoenix Stadium where they got to play on the field and hear about how the whole field retracts out of the stadium. Later they traveled over to, Berridge nursery to see the many different plants the Phoenix area can paint with in their landscapes. Next they went to see Mayesh Florsist Wholesale. Not only were the floral students ecstatic about the many bundles of flowers, but all the students were excited to see and handle them. Before heading to Las Vegas, NV they stopped to see the Desert Botanical gardens. The next day students and faculty met with Plantworks to see their botanical replications. This company has grown to service many hotels in Las Vegas with their products. It’s hard to tell the difference between the their artificial plants and others live plants. That evening students and faculty toured downtown Las Vegas to see the many creative designs inside and out of the buildings. Click here to see more pictures.

 
Sawtelle trip 10/14/2011
 
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September 21st was the Plant Culture class’ Sawtelle trip. Students rode in a caravan of vans, making various stops along the way. The first stop was at the St. Anthony sand dunes, where the students discovered Dune Grass. They learned how and why it grows in the sand. This was their only freebie for the trip, for the rest of the stops Brother Dewey would not be handing out answers; he phrased all of his sentences very carefully. After a few more stops of looking at sagebrush and cattails, they finally stopped off near a wooden bridge. The bridge was built over a part of the Warm River that housed fish bigger than your own arm. They stay there because tourists feed them bread, and it’s illegal to fish there. The students all tossed out bread and some even hopped to the furthest rock out in the water and let the fish eat out of their hands. The question for that stop was why are there no trees on the hillside on the other side of the river, but behind them there’s a whole forest of trees? Eventually they got up to Mesa Falls and took in the sights. Soon they were on their way to their last stop. Driving up the mountain’s switchbacks was filled with anticipation to reach the top. Once up there you could see everything. After taking photos, the class discussed the yarrow that was growing there and why it grew so close to the ground. Finally after a fun trip the whole class made it back to the school. for more pictures click here.

 
 
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Bro Dewey, his Horticulture 201 class, and Bro. Toll all left for Utah early on Tuesday morning to introduce beginning horticulture students to different career paths in the horticulture industry.  They arrived in Provo at BYU where they met Max Darrington, the Provo Campus Arborist who taught them how to climb trees, and a little bit about his job and he let them even practice their climbing skills on some of the larger trees. After finishing they headed to Intermountain plantings, a design build/maintenance firm, to hear from Seth Reed, (a former BYUI Horticulture Graduate) who manages the commercial design build aspect of the company. He took them to downtown Salt Lake City to look at all the work Intermountain Planting is doing at the city creek project,.  Next they headed down to Lehi. In Lehi they went to Thanksgiving Point  to see Tony Latimir the Head Gardener. They saw all the different garden styles created at Thanksgiving Point. The students really loved the Italian water fall. The Students then headed back to the motel to gain some rest for the long day ahead of them. The first stop of the day was at Meadows Brooke Design where they met Ginger Belnap, a Residential Designer and a former BYUI Horticulture Graduate, who took them to different landscapes she has designed. Later they headed over to Rio Tinto Stadium to hear from Nick Takas, the Sports Turf Manager. They toured the facilities and saw the stadium mowed. The next stop was Modern Display, an Event Planning Company, where Raylynn Johnson an Event Designer/Florist showed them around and spoke with them about the large events her company puts on. Finally they ended up at Willard Bay Gardens where Owners Barney and Della Barnett talked about the in’s and out’s of Retail Nursery’s and each student was given a perennial plant to take home by the Barnetts. See more pictures here.
 
 
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Students and Faculty Left on the 16th of May for a 12 hour drive over to Portland, Oregon, a week long tour of the Horticulture industry in the Northwest. Near the end of their drive they stopped off to see the Multnomah Falls and take the Scenic Falls drive.  The students loved seeing the scenery and even climbing into old tree trunks. On the 17th one of the highlights of the day was seeing the Japanese Garden and the Classical Chinese Garden. Students were excited and awestruck by the architecture and the landscaping in the Gardens. On the 18th they visited Iseli Nursery, a nursery production company and Pacific Landscape Management, a landscape management company.  Other stops included Dennis’ 7 Dees Landscaping and retail nursery, where Bro. Toll picked up some strays to add to the jungle greenhouse. The 19th was the talk of the Department. The students tested their sea legs and went crabbing in the Grand Pacific Ocean at Newport, Oregon. Miquela Moreno said “Crabbing was a lot of fun; it was interesting that we could only keep the Males”. After an eventful Friday they all headed back to Rexburg to continue the semester in classrooms.
See more pictures here.

 
 
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The team of Florists sent to Portland, Oregon just got back from decorating 8 floats for the Grand Rose Parade. The team included instructors Bro. Romney and Sis. Infanger. Also students Jaime Garrett, Amy Gallup, Haley Checketts, and Emily Davis went to gain some experience and have some fun. They were privileged to have a whole week there. Starting Tuesday they did a lot of sightseeing. They wound up in Astoria, Oregon and It just so happened to be Goonies day, commemorating the 26th anniversary of the release of the movie the Goonies.  Wednesday they checked in with Studio Concepts which had just received the shipment of flowers, and so they were able to help process all the flowers shipped in. They finished in the afternoon just in time to go see the Japanese garden, Chinese garden and the Rose test garden. Thursday they started decorating floats. They completed 4 floats that day. The estimated time for a completed float is about 1000 man hours. That is starting from the basic automobile structure to constructing the frame of the float all the way to complete detailed decorating like using potatoes as cobblestone pathways. Friday they decorated the final 4 floats and just in time to get judged for the parade. When getting judged all the moving parts get turned on and you just take a step back and see all the work you’ve accomplished. After a long week they headed back to the campus to catch up on everything they had missed. See more Pictures Here
 
 
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Recently, a few of our students and faculty members were able to attend the INLA Hort Expo. The Hort Expo is a conference for different companies in the horticulture industry to come together for the opportunity to network and attend seminars. Our students find opportunities for networking with companies to find mentors and/or job contacts within the industry. Our faculty likes to attend so they can keep current on the happenings within the industry.

Valerie Schulthess and Jace Johnson, both students in attendance at the conference, agree that the expo is invaluable for students. Valerie said that at first, she didn't think any of the booths applied to her future career goals but as she began to speak with different sales representatives, she was overwhelmed by the wealth of information they seemed to give to her. She said, "It evolved into these experienced horticulturists pouring out tons of valuable advice about classes I should take, skills I should master, etc." 
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Jace had the opportunity to attend several seminars and network with owners and managers of the largest horticulture companies in the area. He also visited with several people about possible employment after graduation. He said, "I received one offer to work for a company part time, online, while finishing school. I have never been in another setting that made me feel like such a part of this industry. I am extremely grateful for the chance that I have, as a student, to do things like this. Most people in the industry, unless they are in management, don't even have that chance. This is a very narrow window of opportunity."
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The hort expo is a great way for students to see what their career opportunities in the industry are. It's also a great way to network with companies to gain employment opportunities. It's even a good way to learn about what's going on, and to stay current. Hort expos like these are recommended to anyone trying to get into the industry.
 
 
The Los Angeles student expedition deadline is coming up!  There are going to be great opportunities and warmer weather.  The expedition is on February 24-26 and Brother Toll will be attending as the faculty.  Sign up by this Wednesday at midnight by going to www.byui.edu/careerservices.  We hope to have you join us!