Student Leadership

Alex Stubblefield and Kiely Doherty, two remarkable student leaders with the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden, are honored with this year’s Pinkerton Prize Endowment for Outstanding Student Contributions.

On May 7, 2015, the UC Davis Arboretum Ambassadors won a gold level–Community Service Award from the UC Davis Community Service Resource Center and a silver level–President’s Volunteer Service Award from President Barack Obama for their invaluable service.

Students from our Edible Landscape Internship were featured recently on the UC Davis home page (see above). This group of students, the newest members of the Arboretum and Public Garden’s “Learning by Leading” program, are working to develop, maintain, program, and support edible landscapes throughout campus including the UC Davis Good Life Garden, plots in the Experimental College garden, and the Salad Bowl Garden just outside of the Plant and Environmental Sciences building, just to name a few.

In 2013-14, our staff was fortunate to mentor 13 student employees and 40 undergraduate interns through the Learning by Leading program. Here are some of their amazing accomplishments

The UC Davis Arboretum Ambassadors received a Community Service Award from the UC Davis Community Service Resource Center in May 2014, recognized at the “gold” level for volunteer service projects.

Andy Codd will be selling his tomato, pepper, and herb starts at the Arboretum’s spring public plant sales. Proceeds of the sales will directly benefit the Edible Landscaping Internship program. Purchases will enable students to buy books, tools, irrigation, and other supplies to help them launch their projects.

Student lives are transformed through their work with the Arboretum; dozens of students are involved every year through work or internships with the Arboretum’s Learning by Leading initiative. These unique hands-on opportunities do more than benefit the students’ careers, their leadership projects add richness to the Arboretum experience, they improve our outreach efforts, and they leverage staff resources.

Two “green” walls were unveiled on Wednesday, December 12 by the Landscape Architecture students. They were designed to feature a variety of Arboretum All-Stars. Ellen Zagory, director of horticulture for the UC Davis Arboretum assisted the students with their plant selections.

David Gonzalez Masters Student, Environmental Science, Yale University Ambassador Co-Coordinator, 2011