Did you know the University of Maryland's campus is an arboretum and has botanical gardens? It is home to over 17,000 trees and more than 25 gardens. During the summer, while the campus was quiet and only a few groups of people were around, I experienced the peaceful beauty of blooming plants.
My name is Jacqueline Ambrosio Bravo, and I’m majoring in ornamental horticulture at the Institute of Applied Agriculture. This summer, I worked at the University of Maryland’s Arboretum and Botanical Garden as an educational programmer. Growing up, my school required us to be involved in outdoor and gardening activities. What started as a mandatory task became a passion. Watching my dad, a dedicated landscaper, bring home plants and nurture them until they bloomed was a great source of happiness. Those experiences and my love for the outdoors pushed me to pursue a career in horticulture and landscape architecture.
As an educational programmer, I had independent and collaborative tasks. For independent tasks, I updated the UMD Arboretum’s website, corrected errors, took pictures for self-guided tours, and drafted a grant proposal for the Reily Garden. One of my tasks involved walking around campus to time my walks for the self-guided tour featured on the Arboretum's website. It kept me physically active, walking around 10,000 steps, and I had the chance to take beautiful pictures of the plants.
For collaborative projects, I worked with UMD’s horticulturists, Darrick Davis and Luis Alfonso, and their crew. We did maintenance such as weeding, pruning, and watering across various garden sites on campus. It was a challenge trying to identify different types of weeds and remember the names of the plants throughout the summer. However, working with Luis on the native perennial plant reference list helped me with plant identification. We added details about each plant’s physical characteristics and cultural practices. My time with Luis and his crew allowed me to speak Spanish regularly, reinforcing the importance of continually improving my language skills. Given the predominantly Hispanic population in the landscape industry, speaking Spanish created smooth communication and enhanced productivity with no language barriers.
I also worked with an intern at the Memorial Chapel Garden and other interns at the Community Learning Garden, which included tasks like weeding, pruning, watering, and harvesting vegetables. Overall, these activities improved my practical gardening skills by helping me identify which plants to watch for and understand their specific needs.
Beyond these responsibilities, this internship offered me flexibility, allowing me to go on field trips with other summer interns and even become a camp counselor! We visited the USGA Native Bee Lab, U.S. Arboretum, Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens, and a food forest, which provided a break from our responsibilities and allowed us to enjoy ecological diversity. Serving as a camp counselor for the Urban Forestry Camp at UMD also helped me develop leadership skills, and I learned various topics related to forestry. I even assisted Geoffrey Rinehart, one of our professors at the IAA, with a grub study he was conducting, which introduced me to the research side of horticulture and insects.
I will always remember these experiences throughout my educational journey and personal development. While I initially appreciated only the beauty of plants, I now understand that this was only the surface of a complex ecosystem. I improved my skills in maintenance and plant identification, learning to recognize that each plant has unique characteristics beyond its showy features.
Everyone I have worked with this summer encouraged me to practice paying attention to detail and to move past my concerns about being viewed as inexperienced. This new perspective is allowing me to always seek clarification, no matter how basic it is; it should not delay my desire to learn. My supervisor, Meg Smolinski, said, “It was a pleasure having Jackie on our staff for the summer. She was eager to learn as much as she could and was open to working with several different teams throughout the summer. I was very impressed with her photography skills as well and loved seeing her photos of campus!” I’m excited to take this new perspective into my education and career in horticulture and landscape architecture, as well as to create beautiful and sustainable landscapes.
