Horticulture Opening Social!

SAVE THE DATE!

Our Hort Social is coming up! The date is October 21st (Wednesday) at 6:30 pm. It will be by the buttes and more information will become available as the date gets closer such as location and transportation. It will be a BBQ like always with steaks, salad, scones and possibly some of Bro. Dewey's hunting stash (moose, elk, etc.). All horticulture students are invited as well as spouses, children and fiances. Sorry, no roommates or friends. They must have a ring.

There will be a good amount of publicity as the date approaches so you will definitely hear more about it.

Steve Zollinger Seminar Speaker

Today in seminar we heard from Steve Zollinger who is the Internship Coordinator for the Ag & Life Sciences Department. He basically spoke about resumes and interviews. He started out with resumes by saying that there are no uniform or standard rules for a resume format, but there are, however, do's and don'ts which are on a handout available in the Kimball building. On average, a resume is only glanced at for 10 SECONDS! That's not very much time to grab their attention. Resumes should be neatly organized, with not too many words, plenty of white space and only one page. We, as students, need to taylor our resume for the specific job opening we are applying for and show the employer what they want to see. The best way of doing this is to research the company and network.

With regards to the actual content of the resumes, we should show accomplishments, honors, teamwork, creative thinking, and how you added value to the company. Brother Zollinger talked about using action words and verbs to help to promote each bullet point. A good list of verbs to use in a resume can be found here. Commonly, resumes have bullet points and sentence fragments to create focus with each achievement. Be specific and give numeric values to your experiences. There are great resources from the Career Preparation Services online that help with resumes, cover letters, interviews and general guidlines.

A few good rules with regards to interviews are:

• Be on time (or a little early)
• Dress like a professional for that specific field (don't over dress)
• Be prepared (know your behavior based questions)
• Express yourself clearly
• Ask questions! "Questions are good, but they need to be good questions." --Zollinger
• Follow up (initially give a thank you, call or send a note saying you are still interested; DON'T BUG THEM!)

A few other things he mentioned to be aware of are your MySpace and/or Facebook page. Employers look at any social networking site you may be a part of. Don't have embarassing, immature things on your profile page. Also, your cell phone answering machine should be professional and to the point. You should get rid of the corny stuff you say on it. Finally, attitude and personality matter. People generally hire those people that they like that they think would fit in well with the company.

Go out there, be yourself and be professional. Be proactive and find great jobs and internships like the students we heard from last week.

Successful Horticulture Internships

This last seminar was great and really fun to attend. We got to hear from four of our very own about the internships they served over the summer break. We learned a lot about how to get internships. One main concept was to be persistant. Most of them had to check back with the various companies a couple of times to make sure they were considered for the job.

First, we heard from Rachel Arnold. She got an internship at Every Blooming Thing in SLC. They were the 2009 National Florist of the Year! They are a high end florist and try to do everything different and unique. Once Rachel would do an arrangement, her supervisors would say, "Now make it different." They always go the extra mile and are really creative. Every design they do is different than anything else they have done before. Rachel learned some great ways to be creative with just moss and to make the design have a totally different feel than before. She said about her experience there, "When I look at my first arrangements compared to now, I can see a tramendous difference. I don't think I would have learned as much if I went anywhere else." You can check out her internship blog at everyrachelsthing.blogspot.com.

Next, Jane McNaught told us of her internship in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia working at Helen Olivia which is also a very high end floral shop. Some of their clients include the Vice President's residence and the State Department of Protocal. Most of their advertising is through word of mouth. The Helen Olivia style is very compact, tight, roundy-moundy arrangements in a square vase wrapped with satin ribbon. You can see some of their designs at their website, http://www.helenolivia.com/. A few things that Jane pointed out that she had learned was to be very personable with your clients and that floral design is a trade and the best way to learn is to do it and learn from advanced designers. She said that no amount of formal education can teach you the art of floral design. You need hands-on experience and that is what she got this summer. You can check out the actual designs that Jane put together at her blog, janelillianflowers.blogspot.com.

Then, we heard from Jackie Nielson who actually had the opportunity to serve two internships throughout the summer. First she worked at Signature Landscapes out of Redmond, Washington. Signature is a big time supporter of our horticulture program. They are actually setting up a scholarship for our students because of the students like Jackie that have been so valuable to them. Signature does large residential landscapes and commercial. One of their trademarks is seasonal color and they love to display that in the landscape. Jackie was a labor hand for them in installing some landscapes but she also learned some managerial techniques. Once she finished up with Signature, she had time left in the summer before school. She got set up with T&L Nursery down the road from Signature. T&L is a wholesale only nursery so they don't sell product to the general public. They use recycled water and propagate a lot of their own product. Here she learned to work in the greenhouse and out in the fields. They gave her a field to care for and grow during the time she spent there. She loved feeling in charge of caring for those plants.

Finally, Kyle Steadman ended the presentations with his internship at Heads Up Landscape out of Albuquerque, New Mexico. They are a full service landscape company that does commercial design, build and maintain. The way that he got this internship was when they came to campus to recruit. They had a pizza party and he started talking to them, networking and then following up. Heads Up is an amazing company and they were rated #54 in the Lawn and Landscape magazine. Since the recent 'green' movement and with their location in New Mexico, they have worked a lot with xeric landscaping and drought tolerant material. During his internship, Kyle was given the chance to do an outdoor paver project from start to finish which included designing and installing the area. He had a great experience and was given some great opportunities.

This was a great seminar to learn about what our peers are doing and learning. One main ideato take from this seminar was to "get out of dodge" whether it is New Mexico, Washington, Utah or Virginia. There are great opportunities out there for amazing internships and to be able to be representatives for the school. Great job guys!

2009 Portland Rose Festival

Photo courtesy of www.oregonlive.com/rosefest/

Brother Romney, Sister Bass, Kristin Wheelwright, Shae Hunter, Christa Beaty, and Liesel Hirschi helped out Studio Concepts, a float company located in Portland, by building and designing their floats that were entered into the Portland Rose Festival. They had three days to work on the two floats. One of the floats was the largest float entered this year which was about 10-12 feet wide and 60 feet long. To prepare for this great opportunity, the students made large scale arrangements and researched the best techniques for securing them onto a float. Sister Bass said that some of the designs can be five to six feet tall! This was definitely a great chance to practice the horticulture skills we are developing and also get our name out into the world for companies in the horticulture fields. Great work guys!

Walt Disney Company Job Postings

Golf Course Maintenance Internship
Each participant will learn the day to day responsibilities and tasks associated with maintaining a golf course. They will be trained to use all equipment used in Golf Course Maintenance as well as irrigation and pest management.
Deadline to apply: October 23rd, 2009
Starts: January 2010
See link for more information: https://disney.recruitmax.com//main/careerportal/job_profile.cfm?szorderid=205018&szR

EPCOT Science Plant Science Internship
This internship is designed to provide qualified college students with the opportunity to work in the unique agricultural greenhouses that are part of the Living with the Land boat ride attraction at EPCOT.
A few exciting opportunities with this internship: Maintain a high-quality greenhouse show of over 50 hydroponically-grown food crops from all over the globe & lead informative and interactive Guest tours through the greenhouses, labs and aquaculture facility daily.
Deadline to apply: October 23rd, 2009
Starts: January 2010
See link for more information:
https://disney.recruitmax.com//main/careerportal/job_profile.cfm?szorderid=204922&szR

EPCOT Science Biotechnology Internship
This internship is designed to provide qualified college students with the opportunity to work in the unique biotechnology laboratory that is part of the Living with the Land boat ride attraction at EPCOT.
A few exciting opportunities with this internship: Prepare media and tissue culture for a wide variety of plants & lead informative and interactive Guest tours through the greenhouses.
Deadline to apply: October 23rd, 2009
Starts: January 2010
See link for more information:
https://disney.recruitmax.com//main/careerportal/job_profile.cfm?szorderid=204921&szR


For more information on any of these internships, contact Sister Bass.

Welcome Back Students!

We are so excited to start this new semester. There will be a lot in store this semester with field trips, expeditions, socials and more. We have plenty of opportunities for each of you to grow and explore the horticulture world. To those new students just starting the horticulture program, we welcome you and are excited that you have found interest in this field.

This blog will continually be updated, so check back often for news and information about what our program is doing. Have a great start to this new semester!