For many educators in this year’s Seed to STEM program, the week was filled with firsts. 

It was their first time walking through a commercial greenhouse. Their first conversation with a wholesale floral buyer. Their first behind-the-scenes look at the logistics, technology and business operations that move plants and flowers from grower to consumer. 

Those experiences are exactly what Seed Your Future, the industry organization dedicated to building the next generation of horticulture professionals, hopes participants bring back to their classrooms. 

The Seed to STEM program combines professional development with hands-on industry immersion, helping educators connect students with career opportunities across horticulture and floriculture. This year’s cohort of 30 high school teachers spent June 14–17 visiting Longwood Gardens; Overdevest Nurseries in Bridgeton, New Jersey; Lucas Greenhouse in Monroeville, New Jersey; DVFlora in Sewell, New Jersey; and North Creek Nurseries in Landenberg, Pennsylvania, gaining firsthand insight into careers many had never previously encountered.  

“I had never really seen the professionals at work in the horticulture industry, and that for me was very eye-opening in terms of what opportunities would be available for students,” says Megan Olivia Hall, a science and agriculture teacher at Open World Learning Community in Saint Paul, Minnesota. “That’s a really powerful message for me to bring back to my students when I do career counseling with them.”  

Lightbulb Moments 

Seed to STEM was created to give educators a firsthand understanding of the many careers available throughout the green industry — knowledge they can then share with students. 

“Most teachers know about doctors, lawyers, nurses, educators, and are used to talking about those mainstream careers,” says Jazmin Albarran, executive director of Seed Your Future. “But there are hundreds of horticulture careers they don’t know are out there, so students don’t know what they are.”  

Throughout the four-day experience, educators met professionals working in growing, research, operations, sales, logistics and business leadership, giving them a broader understanding of where a passion for plants and flowers can lead. At each stop, participants saw how science, technology, business and sustainability intersect to support the industry.  

For Hall, the experience also brought her back to a place she first visited as a child. Longwood Gardens, where the program began, left a lasting impression. 

“Longwood Gardens is of course just an exemplary and gorgeous botanical garden,” she says. “For plant nerds, it’s a pretty big deal and it was really fun to look around and realize that the classmates in my cohort were all taking pictures of the ground.”  

Opening Eyes One Classroom at a Time 

The impact of Seed to STEM extends well beyond the site visits. 

Following the in-person experience, educators participate in webinars and develop classroom resources — including lesson plans and career profiles — that help connect academic subjects to real-world careers. Those resources are shared through Seed Your Future, expanding the program’s reach beyond the educators who participate directly.  

For Courtney Champagne of Hardin-Jefferson ISD in Texas, the experience has already influenced how she approaches curriculum development. 

To help make classroom content more engaging, Champagne created an exercise that follows the journey of a rose from seed to consumer, illustrating the many careers involved along the way.  

Similarly, Taleek Harlee of Purnell Swett High School in North Carolina has already begun planning lessons for the coming school year. 

“Seed to STEM made a big impact and really made me feel valued as an educator and prepared to go back in my classroom,” Harlee says. “I have more tools in my toolbox now and I love that.”  

For Seed Your Future, that enthusiasm is the ultimate goal. Every educator who returns to the classroom with a deeper understanding of horticulture careers has the potential to introduce hundreds of students to opportunities they may never have known existed.  

“Students can’t aspire to careers they’ve never heard of,” Albarran says. “Seed to STEM helps educators bring those possibilities to life, creating a bridge between the classroom and an industry eager to welcome the next generation.” 

Kenya McCullum is a contributing writer for the Society of American Florists.