Our collaboration with Indu Holdsworth for IrisBG's Coffee Chat Live! in June 2024 provided us with a great insight into her role in implementing a training program for student workers at Boston's Northeastern University (NAU), The arboretum's program of empowering students within a greenspace oasis of a bustling urban environment is an excellent case study of promoting learning, encouraging creative thinking, and fostering a team spirit.
When we met the NAU team in person, it was immediately apparent that the group dynamic was unique, resembling the camaraderie usually seen only in movies. Leading the team with her serene and confident demeanor, Indu explained the progress of the young arboretum over the last few years, the training program she helped build, and the proposed plans for collections management. Impressed with her presentation and enthusiasm for her work, we couldn't help but ask Indu about the events, people, and plants that motivate and inspire her.
Indu adding an accession tag at a tree planting meant to commemorate former and current arboretum student employees graduating in 2024
When did you know you wanted a career in Horticulture?
I didn’t have a big moment that led me to a career in horticulture, but rather, a series of small epiphanies that guided my decision. I pursued a bachelor's degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology without any real plan for what to do afterward. I have always wanted to be in the environmental science field. For a long time, I assumed I would be doing research. I took a lot of lab and field-work-oriented courses and did a brief stint as a TA and lab supervisor for an Intro Ecology class, but neither clicked with me.
I’m from a rural area, and I have always had the impression that there is a distinction between human and ecological systems. After living in Boston for two years, I began trying to reconcile my desire to study nature while living in a city. Soon after, I was introduced to urban green space management while taking a Landscape and Restoration Ecology class to fulfill a degree requirement. What I learned during this experience gave me clarity, and I realized there was important work to be done to help both people and the environment simultaneously.
Can you share a few of your proudest/ most meaningful achievements as a student worker at Northeastern University Arboretum (NAU)?
Working at the university has been a unique experience. I started at the arboretum during my third year of undergrad as part of Northeastern’s cooperative education program. After my co-op ended, I stayed part-time through undergrad and grad school. I graduated with my master’s in Environmental Science and Policy this past May and have recently started working full-time as NAU’s first plant recorder.
I am proud to have contributed to creating many initiatives and protocols that are now standard practice here. One of the most significant projects I have been involved with is accessioning over 4000 trees on our Oakland [California] campus. This was the first Northeastern campus besides Boston to be integrated into the arboretum, and we didn’t have any sort of protocol or system for differentiating the campuses. Through much collaboration, we figured out an accessioning protocol. My next task for the project was quite daunting- performing multiple rounds of data imports to access every tree in the Oakland inventory.
I am currently the plant recorder for both the Boston and Oakland campuses, and it has been challenging to manage a collection from the other side of the country. Much of my time has been dedicated to standardizing how information is passed between the two campuses, and it has been really rewarding to continue seeing this project through.
Other smaller projects have been just as meaningful to me. When I first started at the arboretum as a member of the cooperative education program, I was tasked with sourcing plants for our small koi pond. This was the first time I had been in charge of something like this, and I probably spent more time and energy planning and researching than necessary. I studied aquatic ecosystems, made budget spreadsheets, and researched local suppliers.
Eventually, I settled on a selection of plants that featured the sacred lotus, Nelumbo nucifera. I wrote maintenance plans that involved dragging the potted and submerged lotuses into the deepest part of the pond in the fall to give them the best chance of surviving Boston winter.
|
|
When the plants finally arrived, I put on waders to place them in the pond the way I had planned, and I almost immediately slipped and fell in. After all that, the lotuses didn’t bloom until the following year. At the time, it felt like a failure, but the lotuses are still there, and I took many lessons from that project that still guide me today. |
What are your goals for the plant collections now that you are in a manager role there?
Now that I have joined the arboretum full-time, my focus has been streamlining our current workflows. My biggest goal is to make IrisBG a resource for as many people as possible. I want to compile enough data to eventually track plant health and phenology trends, organize information for plant care specialists, and better understand the arboretum's overall ecological impact.
Before I moved into the plant recorder role, our records were managed by a revolving cast of student employees who started with no knowledge of IrisBG. [For more on this, see our article detailing the June 2024 Coffee Chat, Many Hands, Many Plants Live! in Boston. You'll also find some great downloadable resources, too!] Because of this, many record-keeping projects were started in Excel or similar programs to accommodate different knowledge levels as students were being trained. Once the growing season ends and the planting slows down, I hope to migrate many of these student projects into the database so they are all in one place.
Is there someone you look to in the botany or horticulture world for inspiration or a mentor?
I am one of a cohort of Northeastern Students who have found their place in the horticultural world thanks to the guidance of our Director of Horticulture and Grounds, Steve Schneider. When I took the arboretum job, I knew almost nothing about trees. By the end of my co-op, Steve had helped me gain a working knowledge of New England flora and develop the skills necessary to manage the database on my own eventually. As someone just entering the workforce full-time, working with someone who is always available to help or answer questions and has faith in my ability to handle projects independently has been invaluable. Thank you, Steve!
Five semesters of student employees & Director of Horticulture and Grounds, Steve Schneider
|
Is there a tree or plant that has taught you a valuable lesson? At the arboretum, hidden away in a little alley between two buildings, is a Davidia involucrata specimen. This tree is commonly known as the Dove tree because of its unique flower structure. It is special to me because I learned how to make a herbarium specimen with its cuttings. The Dove tree reminds me of how diverse and resilient plants can be. The conditions of an urban campus, especially one in New England, can make it challenging for many plants to perform well. This tree is thriving while sandwiched between a building and a sidewalk. It’s a nice reminder that many challenges I encounter are way more possible to overcome than I initially thought. |
|
Comments
0 comments
Please sign in to leave a comment.