2017 ASHS Annual Conference

Seed Your Future – the national movement to promote horticulture and encourage young people to pursue careers working with plants – completed its qualitative research in early 2017. This third phase of research included both a survey tool and twelve focus groups across the country. Middle school students (1,000), their parents (1,000), teachers (501) and guidance counselors (200) were surveyed to determine their knowledge of horticulture, careers in horticulture and how they determined or influenced students in career choices. A majority of students plan on obtaining a bachelor’s degree or higher; nearly 70% have already thought about which college major they’ll choose, going to college and their future career. Nine out of 10 teachers and counselors feel they have a role in guiding students. Students desire careers that offer more than a paycheck. They are looking for flexibility and creative work that can make a positive impact on the world. Horticulture was the college major with the lowest level of familiarity in this survey. Unfortunately, only 28% of students were familiar with the term horticulture. Fortunately, a majority of parents, teachers and counselors are familiar with the term, however, they don’t understand the types and diversity of careers in horticulture. Low awareness among students is likely attributed to limited integration of the topic into school curriculum. Approximately two-thirds of teachers say horticulture is not very or not at all integrated in their schools. Twelve different student, parent, teacher, and counselor focus groups (80) were conducted across the country to identify the types of messages and creative approaches that could motivate students to consider horticulture as a potential area of study or future career. While not one of the focus group students was familiar with the term horticulture, once defined for them, they could understand the diversity of career opportunities. Parents, teachers, and counselors initially had a narrow view of career opportunities. Most did not understand the wide variety of jobs – from STEM – to landscape design – to marketing – to business owner. All participants reacted to a number of creative stimuli, including words, phrases and images. The data from this research will be used to create Seed Your Future’s PR, outreach and marketing campaigns to promote horticulture careers as innovative, creative, and having a positive impact on the world while developing a pipeline of horticulture talent for the future.