American Floral Endowment Update - Fall 2002
Educational Grants Helping to Build a Stronger Industry
Each year. the American Floral Endowment awards educational grants to help attract young people to the industry and to build a stronger industry. Two of these programs are the National Floriculture Forum and the Intercollegiate Flower Judging Contest.
The National Floriculture (NFF) is an educational meeting of university professors, students, government scientists, and industry leaders with the objective of bringing together members of these communities for a three-day meeting to address issues important to the floriculture industry and to collaborate on such issues. The 2002 NFF was held April 10-13 during the California Pack Trials. Attendance was strong, with some 50 professors and researchers from academia representatives universities and colleges across the country. Attendees visited 14 leading floriculture companies in the worked and the UC Santa Cruz Arboretum, which has a distinctive plant collection from the southern hemisphere.
The trip was best summed up by Dr. Richard criley from the University of Hawaii: “Please extend my thank you to the board of the American Floral Endowment for their support of the NFF. It was a great experience to meet with so many of the floriculturists from across the country. AFEÕs support made it affordable for most of us to attend, and Heiner Leith and Linda Dodge made the whole experience pleasurable.”
The Intercollegiate Flower Judging Contest is sponsored by the Pi Alpha Xi, an honor society for horticulture majors. The society promotes scholarship, fellowship, professional leadership, and the enrichment of human life through plants. The contest has been taking place since 1923, and the American Floral Endowment has been involved for an extended period of time. The 61st competition was held April 3-5 hosted by the University of Wisconsin at River Falls. Eleven institutions sent teams of students and coaches to compete. The event is not all workÑ the students enjoy campus tours, tours of local commercial floricultural companies. botanic gardens, team spirit activities, and meetings with local and national companies. This yearÕs team winner was from Cal Poly State University.
