This summer Connor Corcoran, a current Ornamental Horticulture student at the IAA received an interview with Evergrow Landscaping, a local landscaping company. Once he had been granted the job he was given a lot of responsibilities but he was able to run the majority of operations conducted at his facility successfully. Corcoran was in charge of many jobs that require a lot of poise, he was in charge of delivering plants and supplies to his company, placing orders with local plant suppliers, and working with architects to develop plans. It's quite difficult to do on your own, but he was able to since he is a very dedicated worker and can deal with a variety of issues. Corcoran explained that through his internship at the greenhouse, he was able to grasp everything relatively quickly because his superiors imparted their experience to him in a manner that was very beginner friendly.
During the interview process, Corcoran was asked what he hoped to learn from the internship. He said, “I wanted to learn more about the different greeneries, how to design and how to create a beautiful garden.” As it turns out, he has been given the task of designing and ordering supplies with architects. He also noted he was “excited about this new responsibility” and has learned a lot from this hands-on experience.
When asked if Corcoran would do it again and he said, “of course, I would recommend it to anyone in the industry because it was a good experience." I asked him what was the most important thing he learned from this internship and he said he learned “how important it is to have a diverse team because you can learn a lot from different people.” Connor also said he also learned how to work with people from different backgrounds and how to respect others. He also learned how important it is to have a good work-life balance, which is something that we all need to learn at some point.
