2024 Horticulture Internship Placements

Stephanie Castro
Rising Senior, Horticulture
City of Greenville Parks and Grounds
Greenville, SC

My name is Stephanie and I am going into my senior year majoring at Horticulture at Clemson University. I spent my summer interning with the City of Greenville working with all the different parks and grounds crews that maintain the city’s many greenspaces. My work with the city consisted of weeding garden beds, mulching, planting, mowing, trimming trees and hedges, removing invasive plants, addressing irrigation problems, and cleaning up any debris around the parks. I had a great time working for the city, I got to work with upwards of ten different crews of people around all the many parks they cover. In this short amount of time I was exposed to so many different sources of knowledge accompanied by hands-on experience and careful instruction from my co-workers. I would highly recommend working here to anyone who wants to gain memorable first hand experience that can be applied to horticulture.

William Ewing
Rising Senior, Horticulture
Growing Green Family Farms
Anderson, SC

My name is William Ewing, and I am a rising senior Horticulture student who had the opportunity to intern this summer at Growing Green Family Farms in Anderson, SC. This farm focuses on all-natural growing methods without the use of any pesticides or herbicides. The assigned tasks changed each day in order to provide produce to local businesses and buyers. This includes rolling out weed barrier, planting, transplanting, weeding, harvesting, rinsing, mulching, or applying compost. Overall, this experience has been a wonderful chance for me to build my skills.

Warren Hunter
Rising Junior, Horticulture
Beach Hill Landscaping
Walterboro, SC

My name is Warren Hunter. I am a junior Horticulture major at Clemson University. This summer, I worked at Beach Hill Landscaping, located in Walterboro, South Carolina. Beach Hill is a small landscaping company specializing in commercial and high-end residential landscapes. As I will be pursuing a career in this field, my goal was to learn more about the landscaping industry to improve my skills for the future. My job consisted of installing irrigation systems, drainage, grading, planting, hardscaping, and many more aspects. This internship helped me gain leadership skills and problem-solving skills in the workforce. I thoroughly enjoyed every part of this internship, and my favorite part was going over landscape plans.

Ridgely Jackson
Current Junior, Horticulture
Longwood Gardens
Kennett Square, PA

My name is Ridgely Jackson and I am a junior horticulture major at Clemson University. This summer, I traveled to Longwood Gardens located in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania to serve as an Outdoor Landscapes intern. While at Longwood, I rotated through different parts of the outdoor display to do many different tasks. While in the ornamental kitchen garden, I harvested food crops and planned perennial cut-flower borders. I also got to work in highly manicured areas, such as Longwood’s series of formal gardens where I did lots of staking, deadheading, pruning, and weeding. I also experienced the upkeep of unique displays, such as a live fern wall and aquatic plantings in the Main Fountain Garden. I had a wonderful time rotating between all of the highly skilled horticulturists, and had a well rounded experience due to the variety of gardens Longwood hosts.

Alea Latham
Rising Senior, Horticulture
Musser Fruit Research Farm
Seneca, SC

My name is Alea Latham, and I am a senior majoring in horticulture. This summer, I had the opportunity to work at Musser Research Farm, a 240-acre facility in Seneca, South Carolina, dedicated to developing innovative practices to enhance fruit production. During my time there, I applied the knowledge gained from my degree program to enhance my data collection and analysis skills, which enabled me to provide valuable insights for improving farm practices. I also gained hands-on experience in sustainable farming, grafting techniques such as T-budding, operating farm machinery, harvesting, food handling, and troubleshooting irrigation systems. This internship has improved my technical skills and enhanced my problem-solving, teamwork, and communication abilities. Overall, it has prepared me for a successful career in horticulture.

Sara Paddenburg
Current Senior, Horticulture
Farm Girl Deliveries
Six Mile, SC

My name is Sara Paddenburg, and I am a senior Horticulture major at Clemson University. I spent my summer working just 20 minutes outside of Clemson at a small local farm called Farm Girl Deliveries. As an intern, I would harvest vegetables and flowers, make bouquets, wash and package vegetables, and help sow seeds and transplant. I also mulched and weeded garden beds, as well as watered, trellised, and trimmed plants. I loved working here and greatly appreciate this experience and everything I have learned from it. I am so thankful I chose to intern at Farm Girl Deliveries and that I got to combine the knowledge I have learned in the classroom with my work experience.

Riley Resh
Rising Senior, Horticulture
Musser Fruit Research Farm
Seneca, SC

My name is Riley Resh, and I am a rising senior majoring in Horticulture at Clemson University. Over the summer, I had an internship at the Musser Fruit Research Farm where I learned about fruit production. There are a variety of different research programs conducted on the farm including virology, soil science, and genetics studies. I primarily worked with peaches: harvesting, sorting, and tree maintenance. I also fixed irrigation lines, mulched, and grafted trees for future research studies. Overall, I was very happy with my experience at the Musser Fruit Research Farm because I learned a great deal about the production and sale of fresh fruit. I highly recommend this internship for Horticulture majors because the information you will learn here is applicable to many other fields of work.

Ava Rooney
Rising Junior Horticulture
Landscan
Lodi, CA

My name is Ava Rooney and I am a rising junior Horticulture student who had the incredible opportunity to work an internship this summer at a company called Landscan in California. I worked on a block of Cabernet Sauvignon vineyards in Lodi, California. Landscan is a high tech company that advances in engineering, agronomy, and data science which provide great promise for optimizing agricultural production. Landscan has worked on many projects all over the world mapping soil of many different sites and crops. My role this summer was specifically working with wine grapes and solving how environmental factors influence the chemistry of the grapes. In order to collect this data, my fellow intern and I walked down 90 rows of vines collecting data by clipping individual vines off of each plant and measuring lengths of nodes, internodes, and total length of the vines. We then would collect the berry clusters and perform berry analysis by picking berries off the clusters and taking weights and volumes. I had a remarkable experience working on this project and have gained so much knowledge that I am proud and confident to carry into my future.

Sebastian Sanchez
Rising Junior, Horticulture
University of Cordoba
Cordoba, Spain

Working as a research intern at the University of Cordoba was inspiring. I had the opportunity to be a part of the Future Leaders Obtaining Research and Extension Career Experiences (FLORECE) program this summer, which allowed me to obtain eye-opening experiences living and working in Cordoba, Spain. I took part in the FLORECE program because I wanted to gain a more worldly view of agricultural challenges and expose myself to a new culture. At the University, I worked on a project to discover the role of silicon on sunflower potassium uptake, learning various lab techniques. I often assisted other graduate students with their projects where I could and strived to stay curious to immerse myself in the research world. I am forever grateful for this internship opportunity, granting me a plethora of knowledge in and outside the lab. I am glad to have been exposed to such a diverse group of people in Spain and feel inspired to learn more Spanish, which I know, along with this experience, will open new doors for further opportunities in horticulture.

Ryan Schiller
Rising Junior, Horticulture
Mountain Crop Improvement Lab
NC State

My name is Ryan Schiller and this summer I was an intern at NC State at the Mountain Crop Improvement Lab (MCIL) in Mills River, NC. At the MCIL we work on hybridizing and improving various important horticultural crops through methods such as traditional breeding, ploidy manipulation, the use of cytogenetic analysis, and more. During my time I assisted in pollinations, using the flow cytometer to determine ploidy, managing our germplasm collection, and plenty more. On top of all that we frequently have horticulture professionals visit our station to tour around and see the latest exciting happenings. This summer we attended various relevant conferences such as the Southeastern Plant Symposium and the Perennial Plant Association/Speaking Of Gardening Conference. I couldn’t be more grateful for a summer full of new people and new experiences!

Mallory Smith
Rising Senior, Horticulture
Winslett's Produce Market
Easley, SC

My name is Mallory Smith and I am a rising senior Horticulture major at Clemson University. This summer I had the opportunity to intern at Winslett’s Produce Market in Easley, South Carolina. Winslett’s serves as a community hub that takes on several roles, such as a fresh produce market, local grocery store, deli, and garden center. I worked in the garden department tending to plants, watering, harvesting crops from the garden, answering phone calls, weeding, pruning, deadheading, making arrangements and displays, and assisting customers. I’m beyond thankful for the opportunity to complete my internship at Winslett’s. It was a blessing to be able to work alongside such amazing people and have the privilege to learn from them. This experience not only allowed me to practice what I have learned in my coursework outside of the classroom but also to learn from experiences that are not able to be replicated in the classroom.

Grace Smith Fussell
Rising Senior, Horticulture
Growing Green Family Farms
Anderson, SC

My name is Grace Smith and I am a senior Horticulture major at Clemson University. This summer I had the privilege of working at Growing Green Family Farms, a family-owned produce farm in Anderson, South Carolina. While interning here, my responsibilities included starting seeds, moving transplants into the field, daily harvests, and general maintenance for the crop rows and greenhouse, as well as processing and packaging the produce for distribution. This internship provided me with so much useful information on not only the cultivation of crops, but also on the commerce side of things relating to building a customer base, setting adequate selling prices to ensure profit, and the outreach necessary for expanding the business. I really enjoyed spending the summer here because I feel as though it provided me with an abundance of real-world experience that expanded on what we learn in the classroom. I would recommend working here to fellow plant, environmental, and science majors, as well as anyone wanting to learn more about regenerative farming practices.

Bennett Stowe
Rising Senior, Horticulture
Metrolina Greenhouses
York, SC

My name is Bennett Stowe and I am a rising senior Horticulture major at Clemson University. This past summer I spent my time working at Metrolina Greenhouses in York, S.C. in hopes of expanding my knowledge of greenhouse and nursery production. My time at Metrolina was spent scouting for diseases and pests, irrigating, pruning, taking cuttings, repairing irrigation, and applying chemicals. I greatly enjoyed my internship at Metrolina because of the new experiences with perennials, the people I was around, and being able to pick the brains of some great growers. For anyone that wants to be hands on and grow their understanding of nursery production this is a great place to work.