Michigan State Student Horticulture Association

Our undergrads are currently completing professional internships throughout the country. Over the next several weeks, each student will share a little about their internship experience.

I’m Shua, and this semester I'm interning in Ann Arbor, MI, working in the conservatory and several greenhouses full of both research plants and conservatory stock plants. Duties involve watering, assisting with pruning, planting annuals, and sweeping and weeding. We also help with other horticulture divisions, when we get caught up on conservatory upkeep.

Photo 1: This is my supervisor pruning excess branches off of a Banyan tree in order to introduce more light from the canopy. We planted coleus in this area later.

Photo 2: This is a pot of Lithops (living stones). This is grown in the desert house in the conservatory, and there are spares in the collections in greenhouse 1.

# conservatory

As fall semester quickly approaches, we’re excited to announce that our annual Welcome Back BBQ will take place Wednesday, September 9th at 6:30pm! Join us for hotdogs and hamburgers, drinks, and yard games under the tent in the Plant and Soil Sciences Building (PSSB) conservatory plaza. This is a great chance to connect with fellow plant-loving students and faculty!

We can’t wait to see you there!

Meet the 2026-27 SHA officer team! Let's welcome our president!

Hello I’m Sarah! I am a Horticulture major with a concentration in Landscape Design, Construction, and Management. I expect to graduate in spring of 2027! Outside of SHA I love caring for my houseplants, art, thrifting, and being outside!

My favorite part about SHA is getting to know more people who share a love for horticulture! I am especially looking forward to the welcome back bbq and fall trip. I also can not wait to compete in NCLC again!

I am looking forward to all the fun opportunities SHA brings and getting to know all the new members along with seeing everyone again!

Meet the 2026-27 SHA officer team! Next up is our vice president!

Hi my name is Cisco, and I am in the 4 year Horticulture program and I expect to graduate in spring 2029. One thing that I love about SHA is all the amazing dedicated students I have met and become friends with and I am excited to meet all the new people that will join us in the coming years! I am also excited for all the group activities and volunteer work we will do as a club. Some of my hobbies and interests outside of SHA include running, watching films, and video games such as Life is Strange, but I am also always expanding my plant collection!

Meet the 2026-27 SHA officer team! Say hello to our secretary!

Hello! My name is Lydia Gasper. I am a Horticulture major with minors in Environmental & Sustianability Studies and Spanish. I expect to graduate this spring. I like SHA becuase it has allowed me to meet and work with a lot of awesome people and has provided a lot of excellent networking opportunities. This year, I look forward to meeting all of our new members! When I’m not at SHA, I enjoy spending time outside, and time with my roommates and cat.

Our undergrads are currently completing professional internships throughout the country. Over the next several weeks, each student will share a little about their internship experience.

I am Carmen Gutierrez and this summer I'm interning on MSU's campus, as a Botanical Scholar. The Beal is a 5-acre BCGI accredited garden with a diverse collection of over 2,000 plants, including rare and endangered species. I chose to work at the Beal due to my interests in public gardens and food distribution. The Beal offers many opportunities for me to develop my skills for both possibilities.

My day-to-day tasks include weeding/watering/pruning, greenhouse and propagation experience, native plant ID, invasive species removal, public speaking and engagement, professional development, and field trips to gardens and scientific sites. I am also working on my own project this summer, researching and installing a collection of plants based on a Michigan Foodways theme.

Photo 1: Alocasia, which were overwintered as bulbs in the greenhouse. They will be planted into the annual beds for a themed display designed by our Botanical Steward.

Photo 2: My go-to gardening set-up includes a new kneeler/bench combo, which I highly recommend. In this bed, I am cutting back English Ivy to create a neater edge and to make the decorative rocks more visible. The plant debris is added to a compost pile at the MSU Recycling Center.

Our undergrads are currently completing professional internships throughout the country. Over the next several weeks, each student will share a little about their internship experience.

I'm Connor Stevenson and I'm working in Arlington, VA this summer. Area 2 Farms is an indoor organic CSA that provides two hundred fifty CSA shares per week, mostly microgreens and herbs. As a farm hand, I am helping grow and tend to crops including seeding, transplanting, harvesting, and packaging. I have also been tasked with doing outdoor trials for varieties that the farm normally produces indoors. The goal is to compare production time and yield between the two systems.

This is my third summer at this company, and I am proud to be back! The farm is continuously growing, and they keep giving me new opportunities and challenges.

Photo 2: Recently seeded microgreen flats.

Photo 2: Outdoor area I get to upkeep and use for production trials.

Our undergrads are currently completing professional internships throughout the country. Over the next several weeks, each student will share a little about their internship experience.

Hi, I'm Claire and I'm interning in Traverse City for the summer as a landscape design intern. The company had great review from previous interns, and I got to meet the owner at Networking Night hosted by last fall. The main focus of my internship is landscape design, and I've been working on a few simple projects under the guidance of one of the designers. I will rotate through the other divisions of the company later in the summer and the goal is that I'll get to work with the install and maintenance crews on designs that I drew earlier on.

Photo 1: My first design was a super simple redesign of an existing landscape bed. It was good to practice on and build some confidence with.

Photo 2: This was the start of a design for , which is looking to install an accessible garden with a greenhouse, pergola, and table-like wheelchair accessible raised beds.

Our undergrads are currently completing professional internships throughout the country. Over the next several weeks, each student will share a little about their internship experience.

I am Cisco DeMarco, and my internship is at The Botanic Garden at Historic Barnes Park as the Children's Sensory Garden Intern. I chose because I toured it last year with @ and met them at our Networking Night. My tasks so far include watering, planting, leading volunteer programs, installing a pergola, and working on erosion control.

My main role is with the Children's Garden where I am responsible for maintaining our community garden plot, the giving garden, and the Blue Star Memorial bed.

Photo 1: Standing under a new pergola I helped install.

Photo 2: Cleaning up our plant-holding space. I chose to share this picture because it shows how small projects can be extremely beneficial to the productivity of the gardens in the long term.

Our undergrads are currently completing professional internships throughout the country. Over the next several weeks, each student will share a little about their internship experience.

I am Brooke Furmanski and this summer I am working as an intern in Kalamazoo, MI. I chose this company because they are a distributor to the local greenhouses in my hometown and to the greenhouse my cousin works at in North Carolina. I have been shadowing many employees have been assisting with watering in the greenhouses and nursery, learning to use the irrigation booms, taking part in chemical applications, and sticking/sowing cuttings and seeds.

Photo 1: Bean and ornamental pepper plants are on almost every greenhouse bench, and every few feet when plants are grown on the ground. The bean plants are used as indicator plants - if the crop gets a disease or pest, the bean will likely get it before the rest of the crop, giving growers time to respond. The pepper plants act as host plants to beneficial insects.

Photo 2: Irrigation boom used to apply plant growth regulators.