The IAA is a fantastic program at the University of Maryland for people who are interested in agriculture. Haley Moore is a part of this program and her major is Agricultural Business Management. While she is very interested in horses and working with animals, Moore decided to broaden her view on agriculture this summer by working with lots of plants during her internship. She gained new perspectives.
Over this summer and into this fall, Moore found an internship at the Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum. She made a lasting impression on her supervisor, Horticulturalist Lindsay Hollister, who states “It has been a pleasure having Haley's horticultural assistance. She is dependable and easy to work with. I value the fact that she does not need guidance on every little thing and offers her own suggestions.”
As the only intern, Moore had plenty of things to do. She admits that some tasks were not very exciting—like watering plants, picking up sticks, walking the trails, cleaning the park, digging up trees to sell, tick dragging, working the plant sale, attending phone meetings—but, they all made a big impact on the park. A favorite task of Moore’s was creating signs for plants. This sounds like a very simple job, but Moore had to make up a vision board and create the signs herself. She really enjoyed being able to be creative and do something that helped improve the gardens. Plus, sign making provided creative indoor work when the weather was not great.
Moore said that while she was working at the park, they had found an abundance of a plant called mugwort. This root is taken as a “tonic” and it helps boost energy. It helps with digestion and keeping yourself healthy. Moore was able to research new ways to use the mugwort. The most common way to use it is to make teas. This allowed Moore to broaden her horizons on plants and really take into consideration that each plant is different.
The IAA has many classes about plants and how to identify them, the different kinds and how to care for them. Moore has taken the soils and fertilizers course, which helped her learn about what plants need to survive. During the internship she learned more about plant identification and the specific needs and traits of them. She enjoyed learning about plants and how they grow. Moore also improved her communication and time management skills, adding that she learned to create schedules. Creatively, Moore learned to construct a vision board, make videos, and was able to do more photography.
While the internship was mainly horticulture, Moore gained experience with smaller animals as well. She recalls one day that a baby bird was in the road. She and her supervisor found the nest nearby. Another day they were in one of the classrooms during a meeting and a lizard got caught on a sticky trap meant for bugs. The lizard was unable to move off of the trap so Moore cut around the lizard carefully so he could get off. Recently, Moore has been considered a “turtle whisperer” at the park. There is a pool on the property where a box turtle was stuck in the middle. Moore had gone to the steps of the pool and called for the turtle. The turtle slowly made its way over to Moore where she got him out of the pool.
Moore hopes that this internship will help her in the future of creating her own agricultural business. With more knowledge on plants, she hopes the business involves some kind of floral aspect. She says “I really enjoyed working there and with Lindsay. This internship opened me up to a whole new environment and I realized that I love working outdoors.”
Moore is now more open minded about the opportunities available and plans to explore more jobs in the area of natural resources.
