“My most inspirational person would be my mom. I came here for engineering because I didn’t really have much of a direction. I liked math and science, so I thought that that would be a good fit for me. Quickly found out [I] wasn’t good at it. I didn’t like it, so I sat down with my roommate and I started looking at all of my options and all of the majors that Tech had to offer. I thought that horticulture sounded cool, and you know, it got me thinking: all my life I’ve been surrounded by plants, thanks to my mom. She’s always had me helping in the garden and we’d often go to Lowes and Home Depot to look at the dying plant rack sale and save all those plants. So, I thought I’d check it out. In my first semester, I fell in love with the subject and I started taking classes. I started getting internships and summer jobs and anything horticulture-related. This past spring, I took an internship at a greenhouse and I loved it. It was crazy, it was long hours, it was hard work, and I just loved it. I thought I was good at it, and actually this summer I’m going back to the same greenhouse to work in propagation, and I have all of this to thank for from my mom. I think it was that little click because I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I wouldn’t have any interest in plants if it weren’t for my mom.’ I’m incredibly happy now.
I see myself being a grower of different annuals and perennials. I would really like to start in propagation, and that’s why I have the job this summer: to see if I like it. I think that if you can start a plant from either just a seed or just a cutting, you can pretty much do anything with them. I would really like to start my career there and see where that takes me.”
