Big Grower July 2021 - 9

MANAGEMENT
On-campus plant drops, where students receive free plants and information on how to grow them, have become
one of the Collegiate Plant Initiative's most popular events at colleges (above). Humorous social media memes are
another way the Collegiate Plant Initiative is reaching out to college students (right).
of information about plants into one of the popularly shared memes on
social media, reaching thousands of users.
Although we share information with our audience, CPI is also focused
on getting our audience feedback on what they love about plants. This is
the second prong of our organization's mission, to figure out the plants
college students' love best. By tracking interactions with our posts on
different topics, we know exactly which plants students love and buy, and
which ones they leave on the shelf.
Social media is a unique avenue for information exchange among today's
college students. This is very important because they are tomorrow's
young affluent consumers and educated employees of the horticulture
industry. It is an avenue more popular with this demographic than any
other generation before them, with more reach and less expense than any
other method currently available (i.e., flyers, cable television, magazine
advertisements). CPI knows this audience the best and is engaging with
college students in the most relatable form because it is run by members
of this same demographic, members that inherently know and understand
what this audience will react to, what they need to hear and see, and what
they want to buy.
The third objective that has evolved out of CPI's mission is to help the
people who love plants find careers in the horticulture industry. We know
that a large percentage of jobs in the horticulture industry go unfilled
each year. CPI has naturally progressed from attracting college students'
attention in pursuit of our goal to combat plant blindness, to exposing
them to the various career paths available for all majors in the horticulture
industry.
In 2020 just before the pandemic shut down much of life as we know
it, CPI organized our first " Student Drop. " This three-day event took 35
students from five major U.S. Land-Grant Universities down through South
Florida to network with representatives from the Florida plant industry.
The major goal of the Student Drop was to connect the college students
that were looking for jobs and internships with companies that were ready
to hire them. Three UF-IFAS Research and Education Centers (MFREC,
GCREC and TREC) were the sites of reverse-career fairs, at which students
set up their own tables with their personal displays and resumes and
company representatives walked around and met with them. In between
travelling to these sites, the Student Drop also stopped to tour several
different companies such as Driscoll's Berry Farm, Costa Farms and
ForemostCo.
By the end of the trip, at least one-third of the students had secured
follow-up interviews or offers for jobs and internships. Based on this level
of success, CPI is a natural fit to become a sustainable pipeline of top-tier
college talent to the horticulture and plant industry.
HOW GROWERS CAN BENEFIT
Growers can benefit from CPI's unique access to its college-aged
audience to draw attention to their plant selections by donating to our
seed drops. This is one of the easiest ways to gain massive exposure of
your plant products to young consumers across the country and we are
always open to distributing new seeds to students.
Growers can also tap into our expanded pool of top-tier educated
potential job applicants. CPI currently has students who are interested
in applying their knowledge and experience from various academic
backgrounds to the horticulture industry. The only issue is there are not
enough internships for them to apply to! Reach out to us with information
about your company, jobs, and internship program. We can direct our
audience to your company to fill those positions.
The Collegiate Plant Initiative would not be able to accomplish these
goals without the generous support of several organizations within the
industry. Our partners include Altman Plants, the American Floral
Endowment, the Fred C. Gloeckner Foundation, Proven Winners, Costa
Farms, Scott's Company, PeaceTree Farm and the University of Florida's
Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.
Samantha Burrell is the executive director of the Collegiate Plant Initiative
and a Ph.D. candidate in the Environmental Horticulture program
at the University of Florida. For more information, please visit www.
collegiateplantinitiative.org.
JULY 2021 9

http://www.collegiateplantinitiative.org

Big Grower July 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Big Grower July 2021