News

DCTC Landscape Students Participate in 2008 Student Career Days

April 7, 2008

A group of thirteen students recently participated in the PLANET Student Career Days, held this year at North Metro Community College near Atlanta, Georgia on March 26-30. The SCD is an annual national event for landscape students sponsored by the Professional Landcare Network (PLANET), and hosted by a different college each year.

This year, in the largest event ever, 64 two and four-year colleges from around the country took part, with more than 900 student participants. Events include workshops, career fair, tours, social activities, and 25 competitive events such as skid-steer operation, woody plant identification, or landscape design. Contests are sponsored and judged by industry.

We are one of the smaller teams to participate, yet can hold our head up during competitions. Some of the results are mentioned in the photo gallery that follows. Of course, mainly we had a good time, made valuable employer contacts, and met students from around the country. We enjoyed visiting the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, and the Atlanta Botanical Garden, a very fine arboretum almost downtown. We tried to visit a historical cemetery in Atlanta, but a recent tornado had caused great damage and the site was closed to the public. DCTC is the only program in Minnesota that participates in the annual SCD, and we have been doing so since 1985.

Above: We all receive a rousing welcome at the opening ceremony. We are in the green shirts holding our college banner

Above: Robin and Holly at the career fair. About 85 employers from around the country had booths at the fair.

Above: Elizabeth identifying a specimen in the Woody Plant Identification Contest. She was 13th out of 104 in this contest, but took 3rd place in Business Management.

Above: Faith identifying a pest specimen in the Pest Management contest. She was 5th out of 79, and just a missed a 3rd by the slimmest margin.

Above: Matt and Zach building a garden bench in the Wood Construction contest. No award, but still 9th out of 57 contestants. One mis-measurement, but a nifty repair limited the damage. Zach was 8th overall for personal totals, out of about 850 contestants, making him an official Superstar.

Above: Zach and Jim in the Irrigation Installation contest. They had to construct an irrigation system from a design, installing sprinkler heads and wiring valves, as they are doing here.

Above: Here is what the irrigation assembly contest looked like after 57 teams completed the task and judging begins. This parking lot got very wet.

Above: Jim and Zach in the Paver Installation contest.

Above: Phil checking the load in the Truck and Trailer competition

Above: Here is the course in the Truck and Trailer competition.

Above: Patrick dressed for the Leadership Skills competition. Patrick is obviously a Minnesota Twins fan.

Above: Mary Beth in the Leadership Skills competition. This is a role-laying team competition, with teams thrown together from four different colleges during the competition.

Above: Suzanne in the Maintenance Estimating contest. Suzanne was 8th out of 104 in Woody Plant Identification, the highest we have ever achieved in that contest. After all, here in the frozen north we can’t grow ¾ of the plants on the list.

Back to News