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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.
 
BYU-I interns 01/21/2011
 
For inspiration for this new semester, we thought we'd highlight our interns for the past year. In the past year, BYU-Idaho's horticulture department has been represented by 35 interns in 13 states spreading across the U.S. We've been represented down the east and west coast, ranging from Hawaii to New York. Our students have been great at opening doors, finding opportunities, and keeping up our awesome intern reputation. The Horticulture department encourages you to keep an eye out and find those opportunities. They offer classes like Internship Preparation and Seminar. They go on expeditions and trips to encourage networking. Students should take advantage of these things offered by the university. Learning on the job is such a great experience!
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Ben Miller was a very interesting speaker to have for seminar this week. He gave very good insight to the business side of the Horticulture industry. He spoke a lot about the differences between 'big business' and small business. While large companies may seem to have more benefits, small companies may offer more opportunity for experience and growth. He brought up the fact that, in a small company, the lines of communication are a lot smaller, allowing you to have access to the 'big guys' of the business. With those communication lines open, more opportunity and growth is available, but only if you take seek out those opportunities for yourself. 

He also talked about failure being a big deterrent for entering a small company. His definition of failure was not learning from mistakes. Failure isn't really failure unless you give up. He said, "Manage your failures." Address your failures, reflect on them and turn them into success. I really liked that he said failure should build confidence rather than rattle it. If we can turn 'failure' into a learning experience, it will only lead to success. On that note, he also said he looks for interns who aren't afraid to take on more than they can chew sometimes, who more or less aren't afraid of failure, because that creates more learning opportunities and experience for themselves and shows initiative. 

Northwest Landscape Services seemed like a great company to work for. They view their company as a '2nd university'. Their goal is to make their employees more valuable to the industry than they were when they started work. They achieve this by allowing their employees more experiences and opportunities than most would get with a large company.