Steven Holman is an Institute of Applied Agriculture student at the University of Maryland, College Park. From when he was first exposed to horticulture while getting his Associates Degree at Howard County Community College, Holman wants to pursue a career in the green field. When asked why, he answered, “I’ve always had an interest in trees and outdoor work, and I wanted to pursue a career where I could do both in a fulfilling field.” So starting in the Summer of 2022, he worked as a Plant Healthcare Technician Intern at Bartlett Tree Experts, based in Gaithersburg, Maryland to get a sense of this field of work.
After two very busy days of in-house briefings, formality paperwork, and the initial job training Holman and the other intern jumped straight into the field with a few of the more experienced Plant Health Care technicians to be shown the ropes. This is where he got the nickname “Intern 2” as he was the second intern for the summer. The first few weeks were an exciting and busy time of early mornings and long days as settling into any new job and routine can be but this hit-the-ground running aspect of the job would help as the sales reps would assign him various types of jobs to complete so it was nearly constant learning of something new.
During his time there Holman learned in depth the basics of many key aspects to plant health care and worked as one of Bartlett's technicians. Some of the skills practiced for plant health care included conducting initial site inspections, woody plant and tree identification, and the identification of pests and signs of pests. The technician skills he learned were conducting tree injections, spraying plant material for spray applications, mixing pesticides and understanding rates and the calculations for DBH specific to injections, running tree injection rigs and the maintenance and cleaning of the rigs, and lastly, EPA-guided removal and cleaning of pesticide-contaminated containers.
Holman's supervisor, Joshua Nadler, described him as “A dedicated employee always willing and eager to learn new things!” This internship gave Holman insight into the daily work in the tree healthcare industry and gave him a better understanding of what he wants to do next in his career. Bartlett was a great place for him, and when asked about what he took away from it the most he replied: “I got to pick the brains of many people there, and learned that for what the job is, it’s a great way to build skills that many federal jobs and other green industry jobs are looking for.”
