Big Grower November 2019 - 8

MANAGEMENT
careers. They coined the term " plantologist "
instead of " horticulturist " and urged us to
connect plants to what they are already
interested in such as sports, fashion, medicine,
technology, art and more.
WINNING CAMPAIGNS
Seed Your Future's BLOOM! (www.
WeAreBLOOM.org) campaign debuted in
the spring of 2018 - and a second year of
materials launched in the spring of 2019.
Plans are under way now for the spring 2020
campaign as well. Through eye-catching
content delivered both inside and outside the
classroom, BLOOM! is educating and inspiring
young people about the endless possibilities
in horticulture.
An important partner in the movement is
Scholastic. Scholastic has a presence in 100%
of K-12 schools and over 90% of classrooms
in the United States. With their support, we
have also created an exciting microsite of free
educator resources including an online learning
module, sample lesson plans and activities,
infographics and videos to help adults inspire
youth to love plants and consider careers in
horticulture. Anyone can download the free
resources at www.Scholastic.com/BLOOM
(educator resources) and www.WeAreBLOOM.
org/partners (toolkit of materials).
We've already reached more than 4 million
students, and virtually every middle-school
teacher in America. That's promising progress
- but a very long " growing season. " You need
employees now.
Now that the Seed Your Future movement is
on a solid path of reaching middle schoolers,
we're developing our second campaign
market - this one focusing on older students.
High schoolers, college-bound students, careerbound
students, confused students, apathetic
students, undeclared and unhappy students
in other programs - they all are the potential
market for the meaningful careers we offer.
But, how do we cut through the clutter and
show them the way to horticulture?
Seed Your Future is doing two things. First,
we hosted a Summit in the summer of 2019 to
explore promising practices in recruitment.
Representatives from the industry and from
education and training programs came together
to share case studies and explore the best, most
promising practices. In 2020, Seed Your Future
will collaborate with others to provide a free
toolkit and other resources to help education
and training programs, and employers recruit
those #FutureGreenCollar professionals.
Second, we're learning from other industries.
The bottom line, quite honestly, it is good PR
and promotion of our industry. Case in point,
the meteoric rise in interest in becoming a
professional chef - arguably one of the most
difficult, competitive, time-intensive jobs, with
little opportunity for life balance, let alone
connections outside the kitchen - can be
directly attributed to their amazing PR, videos,
TV shows and story-telling from celebrities
and others.
We know that plant careers are rewarding,
make a true difference in the world, are
creative, inspirational and more. So, let's tell
stories and become PR gurus. Let's learn from
what kids told us, and embrace social media,
create fun videos, and tell the inspirational
stories of the horticulture heroes and
plant champions in the world today (www.
seedyourfuture.org/horticultureheroes).
That's what Seed Your Future is doing, and
you can join in too. Use all the materials we
create and curate from others who are doing
terrific things in this area. Join the movement
(www.SeedYourFuture.org - it's free) and
access what we have so far. Even better -
customize some resources for your own
company, and share with your community.
Together, we can ensure that the next
generation is raised with green thumbs, and
knows how to get them dirty. I invite you to
show them the way. It's time for everyone to
wake up and see and grow the roses - and the
trees - and the tomatoes. Together, we can
show them how.
Susan E. Yoder, is the executive director of
Seed Your Future. She can be reached at
syoder@seedyourfuture.org.
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Big Grower November 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Big Grower November 2019
