HORT 2710 Internship Report

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Antony Wilson
5 years ago
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1 Form of Report Report should be written in Word and sent as an attachment by to Dr. Ellen Vincent at Save your article with your last name first; followed by Report1; then your company name; then the year: e.g. Cooper_Report1_Callibrie Gardens_2016. Write this report as a 500-1,500 word magazine article that you would submit to an editor who is not knowledgeable about your field or the business you are working for. All technical terms should be explained. See formatting example included at the end if this document. Your article may include more detail than the sample does. Do not include my instructions that appear in italics in your article. Grading rubric: 100 points total Content 1. Purpose and introduction Historical origin-current size/scope Lines of authority-supervisor description Customer description Product description & facility mission My work duties Connections with classroom (min. of 3) Best experience/areas of improvement 10 Additional points lost: 1 point lost for each spelling or grammar error. 2 points lost each for incomplete header or saved file name.

2 REPORT 1-A REPORT ON THE TRAINING STATION 1. Purpose and introduction i. Introduce yourself, your internship, and the work station 2. Organization history and current status i. When did it form and who is the originator? ii. Describe the current business (size/profits/etc.) 1. Type of business/facility (corporation, non-profit, research etc.) 2. Size (acres) or volume of business 3. Number of employees 3. Lines of authority i. What is the company/facility hierarchy? ii. Who supervises you? 4. Customer description and geographic territory i. Who are the customers and where are they located? 5. Products sold or business services performed or research produced (detail) i. What types of products/services are produced/delivered/developed? ii. What is the best selling/most popular product or service? Company mission/purpose iii. Does the company have a mission statement? If not, what do you think it is? Use broad sweeping language to state the overall purpose and overarching goals of the organization. 6. Description of work assignments i. What are your duties and responsibilities? 7. Connections with classroom (minimum of three) i. When do you find connections between the internship experience (a kinesthetic experience) and classroom experiences (visual and auditory experiences)? Report a minimum of three connections. 8. Professional strengths and weaknesses i. What aspects of the work are you best at (what is your natural strength, it comes easy for you)? ii. What skills or behaviors do you need to enhance for this job (areas for improvement)? 2

3 Sample magazine article. My suggestions are in italics and should be removed prior to submission. Header for top left corner: align to the left and use single line spacing Title: Author: Internship experience at Hamilton Gardens in Arkansas Helena Cooper Date: June 20, 2012 Word count: 1,104 words Skip 3 lines and enter title and author using 1.5 or double line spacing. Center the title and author. Internship Experience at Hamilton Gardens in Arkansas Explain my purpose here and introduce the facility: By Helena Cooper 3 I am working this summer for a fabulous public garden in sunny Arkansas. I ve only been here for three weeks but quickly learned that this is no ordinary garden. While most public gardens are open 9 AM to 9 PM and consist of less than 100 acres-hamilton Gardens is open 24/7 and is expansive-covering over 300 acres. Greenhouses cover one acre. So experiencing rotation of duties (an internship requirement by my university) is no problem at this location. Historical origin Current size of operation Hamilton Gardens was created in 1860 by a wealthy entrepreneur named Oliver Hamilton. Hamilton made his fortune in the textile industry and collected plants from all over the world during his travels. He installed the plants on his family property here in Meridian, Arkansas, a relatively rural area. The gardens were for his private pleasure. Before he died he created a foundation to oversee the property and to maintain the plant collection. Today there are nine full time employees and several subcontracted businesses responsible for the property. Two people work in management; five work in installation and maintenance; and two people work in the marketing/education/fund raising division. I

4 am one of five interns learning about public garden management and maintenance this summer. I come from South Carolina while the others come from Georgia, California, Missouri, Kansas, and even Australia. Lines of authority My immediate supervisor is Ms. Maura O Connell. She is a horticulture graduate of University of Missouri and has been here for just over three years. She is an oak tree specialist and was drawn to this garden by the extensive oak groves (over 100 acres) and diversity of species offered here. When I work with her I realize that an oak is much more than a beautiful stately tree-it is a distinguished representative of history that serves to enrich people, animals, and even soils. Customer description People come from all over the world to view this garden. Yesterday I met a couple from Kenya, and just this morning a group from Japan came for a tour. Local people come by as well and it is not uncommon for a bus load of elementary school children to come for a guided tour of the greenhouses and water gardens. Each year approximately 1,200 people stop by and spend time looking and walking about this extraordinary landscape. 4 Mission My work The mission of this facility is to preserve plants and to promote biodiversity. Preservation is ensured by the team of plant propagators who are creating offspring of Hamilton s plants through vegetative methods. By propagating a plant using cuttings or tissue culture an exact replica of the mother plant is produced. Diversity is promoted through seed propagation and through the work of the education department. Continuing education classes are offered during the day to school children and during evenings and occasional weekends for adults. I will be helping conduct a perennial planting demonstration in a few weeks and I am excited to share my knowledge with other people.

5 My work Connections with classroom experience Working at Hamilton Gardens is a welcome relief after two straight years of college classes. Being able to be outdoors every day is a true pleasure for me. My favorite part of the day is early morning when I am hand watering the lilies in the entry border. The place is still and quiet except for the bird band making a joyful noise in the background. After I became accustomed to the new surroundings and my new routine I started being able to track the connections between my classes and my experiences here. When I water the lilies by hand I know to deliver a deep drink rather than a quick sprinkle and to move the hose when I notice runoff. This was a lesson covered in HORT 201 Landscape Experience and in HORT 208 Landscape Appreciation class. Another connection between my current experience and former classes came when a man from Germany asked me a question about a dogwood tree. We weren t able to really communicate until I said Cornus. He instantly repeated the word and told me that is what he thought it was. In HORT 303 Landscape Plants I was pretty annoyed with all the Latin names I had to memorize-but this experience made it seem worth it. Another connection came when I was asked to plant a tree in the beech grove. The plant had been shipped in bare root and whoever received the delivery had placed it too deep in the container and piled soil all around the stem. When I took the beech tree out of the pot I noticed this and quickly pulled all the extra soil off until I found the top most roots. This allowed me to dig the planting hole just deep enough for the root flare (where the topmost roots connect to the stem) to appear at the top of the soil surface. I first learned about the dangers of deep planting in HORT 101 Intro to Horticulture; again in Landscape Design; and it was also reinforced in my Urban Tree Care class. Another connection that was a bit confusing happened while I was transplanting salvias in the greenhouse. After I took the plant out of the container I vertically slit the root system with my knife-so the roots could spread and grow easily in the new larger container. Ms. Olivia, the greenhouse supervisor, shrieked and told me to put that knife away. When I told her I had seen it done this way in one of my landscape planting demonstrations during class she explained that cutting the roots was used more frequently in outdoor landscape planting jobs when plants were potbound or had outgrown the pot. In the greenhouse only root systems that are root bound e.g. no soil is visible in the pot, just a mass of tightly circling roots, are cut. For normal healthy root systems, like we were working with here at Hamilton s, no cutting is needed. 5

6 Summary of best experience Areas of improvement In conclusion, I have identified my professional strengths and weaknesses for this job. I need to spend more time interacting with people I don t know (strangers!) so I can better represent the facility and help visitors feel welcome. Sometimes I just stay in the background while others step up quickly to interact with visitors. I am a key player here however when it comes to landscape plant installation. My supervisors know that I am responsible and careful with plant roots, skilled at orienting the plant in the hole, and always finish up with proper mulch and watering practices. I was given the task last Tuesday of planting a rare maple-leaf oak (Quercus acerifolia). I was quite nervous about this as I knew how hard the staff had worked to obtain this tree; but when I was through Ms. O Connell gave me a thumbs up, so I knew my methods met her approval. -END- 6

Employment Opportunity Position Number Classification Title

Employment Opportunity Position Number Classification Title Position Number 019144 Classification Title Gardner Working Title Horticulture Specialist Does this position accept online No applications? Division The North Carolina Arboretum Full-time/Part-time Full-time