College help? Need ideas!

[Ferns Daddy]

Jean is right, you need to enjoy life as you learn what you want out of life. I'm just a old man who learned late in life how to enjoy life a little late but having a ball now

[Call_Me_Bob]

Originally Posted by gardengirl13

Here's some advice from someone who was told I just needed a college degree, it doesn't matter what it is in. Of course this was the '90's when a lot of kids didn't go to college and any old degree was worth slightly more then it is now.

if you want to teach college level you'll need a terminal degree, meaning a PhD or a masters in something there is no PhD available in. The state colleges here (NY) require this. For some strange reason they think this will help them get students over the private schools. They'd rather have those letters behind your name then have someone who may be passionate and wonderful in their field. Some private schools will be the same, as a way of weeding out candidates I guess. So unless you want to go far with your education teaching at the college level may be a challenge. My husband who will soon has a second masters still would have a VERY hard time finding a teaching job even though he has two years teaching experience. He's not interested in it right now though so it doesn't matter, but with the jobs he's looking to get teaching will be a slight part of in, just not in the classroom.

Make sure you also have those other letters behind your name if you're interested in plants, things like memberships to NHS, AOS etc...

Coming from an arts background one thing I had to do to graduate is take small business management. I know others here have said this too, taking these courses will help you learn the skills for managing your own business, whatever that may be.

If you're interested and do weddings then maybe you can do an all in one type of thing. Have a greenhouse do the orchids and other plants, have people do arranging for weddings etc... and you can also shoot weddings. You can be the florist and photographer. We have places around here where people have bought old farms fixed them up and do weddings out of them. They put in greenhouses, some nice enough to do the ceremony in them, and do the weddings, flowers and photography all in one spot. On the off season you can do orchid breeding, and maybe something like an online store too. Depending on how you want to work with plants you can also do some landscape design too. But I wouldn't do all this in one obviously! Many of the state schools in NY have botany, landscape design, hort., etc... and have classes you can take in all kinds of things like flower arranging etc...

With your in's in photography and other things you should be able to build clients fairly quickly. You could even have your own greenhouse and do the photography at weddings on the side somehow through the company you already work for.

The only thing limiting you is your imagination!

Thanks for the advice and ideas! One thing I have learned is that its a BAD idea to do flowers and photography for the same wedding! But that doesn't take away from your point, which is a great one!

As far as grad-school, I will have to get through undergrad first and then see where it leads me!

What I need to do now is find out what gen eds will be good to take that will be needed for whatever major I end up with. Whether it will end up floriculture, horticulture, or something completely different, your guess is as good as mine. But for right now I know what I think, and I think that I want to go into floriculture, horticulture, or something similar. Knowing that I can look at those majors and what courses are required ( just using any school I can find, psu or delval maybe. Just to get an idea of what will be needed) and then take those that are take-able. I do really want to save one class for an art class. It would be fun and I can apply it.

why don't you become an AOS judge in the meantime ? I don't know if they have an age or HED minimum requirements, but doing this now will certainly help you in many ways.

I have given that some serious though, the closest judging center is actually not too far away. Both are roughly 2 hours, in DC and near Philly. However, I don't have the time or money to complete all the requirements. It would be great to start now, because I will have ahead start, but it really isn't plausible. I don't have the resources to go to the shows and judging centers and things on my own money, and I don't have time because of school and volleyball practices/games. It is something I would like to do though!

[Wild Orchid]

I saw this article today morning and it all makes sense.
6 Career Myths You Shouldn't Fall For - Yahoo! Finance

Best of wishes in your career quest! Asking others for their advice and experience is a good start.

Lilia

[gardengirl13]

For art try botanical drawing or painting. I have a few books you may be interested in buying for yourself that I find very helpful! Try this one first.

Botanical Portraits with Colored Pencils: Ann Swan: 9780764169748: Amazon.com: Books

I know some places offer classes in it too. I'm not very good as i've only done a couple of these drawings so far but here's what I've done. The first was a practice taken from the book.

lily drawing photo - gardengirl13 photos at pbase.com

paph drawing photo - gardengirl13 photos at pbase.com

fushia drawing photo - gardengirl13 photos at pbase.com

It's a fun way to combine two hobbies of mine. I wish the NYBG was closer to me and was a lot cheaper, they have great drawing classes I'd LOVE to take!

My suggestion for art, if you want to get beyond the basic drawing/design/painting/sculpting you have to be an art major. So basically try to get in the basic drawing I and painting I classes and see how you like it. You may have to be creative if you're not an art major. But anyone can take the basics as their non-required course for the semester. I took extra classes almost every semester, and worked with the college to make some of them honors course to do extra work. you can cater many things to what you need compared to high school. I hated high school and didn't do so great, in college I was one of only two to graduate with all college honors and I was also on the dean's list every semester and in the honor society. So it goes to show, when you can do what you want for your education, the sky is the limit!

As for other books to read (yes sometimes doing things on your own can surpass what you get in a classroom- it's like photography, getting out there and shooting and learning from my mistakes helped me more then sitting in a classroom did) try botany for artist type books.

Start doing stuff now. Buy some books, take a college course at a community college to start earning credits early, take more art in high school. I tripled up on art courses in high school and made them independent studies. You could do the same.

[Call_Me_Bob]

Originally Posted by gardengirl13

Start doing stuff now. Buy some books, take a college course at a community college to start earning credits early, take more art in high school. I tripled up on art courses in high school and made them independent studies. You could do the same.

That's exactly what I plan to do! My plan was originally to partially dual-enroll this spring. But we have decided not to and just fully dual-enroll next year. It makes more sense this way for a lot of reasons. (reasons that would take forever to explain)

Thanks for your advice though! And great drawings! I did some similar to that before, but I can't find where I kept them. I thought they were pretty good though!


I have been looking around more and seeing whats available. And looking at things and talking to people, it looks like it will be hard (but not impossible!) to go for horticulture and have a well paying job and be able to pay off the inevitable debt that would accompany a 4 year college.

That's not to say that I can't and I won't grow orchids for my own pleasure! And maybe a sell a few on the side!

I just found this, and may give it some serious thought. http://www.longwoodgardens.org/Profe...1_3_4_3_2.html or maybe it would be something to do after I graduate, IDK just more stuff to look into at this point.

Another two things I have decided I might like are advertising (more to the art side of it) and maybe physical therapy ( I know it would be a lot more school, but still something to consider) . Still keeping my options and mind open then! Just basically food for thought at this point.

As far at PT goes, I think I would really enjoy it. I have spent a considerable mount of time in the PT office in the past and especially this past year (shin splints, bad ankle sprain, torn ligaments in my back.) And my physical therapist is a great guy and it seems like something I would enjoy. And being there, I got to see how he interacts with other clients and it's really awesome!

[gardengirl13]

Here are some things you can start now if you have the money:

Botanical Illustration 1: Basic Drawing Techniques

Plant propagation

I don't know anything about Oregon, but you can research this.

Horticulture -- Undergraduate Degrees Online -- Online & Distance Degrees -- Oregon State University Ecampus -- OSU Extended Campus

Top Pennsylvania Horticulture Schools : Programs, Colleges, Degrees, Courses, Classes, Certification, Training

[orchidsarefun]

some food for thought


http://www.naceweb.org/uploadedFiles...xecSummary.pdf

[Leafmite]

Right now, I am seeing you, a year from now.
My daughter has decided upon her college and is now filling out scholarship applications like crazy (we had to file taxes early to be able to do the form (fafsta?) that colleges want to decide how much money to give in aid). She's awaiting a decision on the schools 'offer' (how much she will actually need to pay), and preparing to visit the school (she chose one pretty far away...she needs to fly there). She has a back-up school chosen as well in case she can't afford the first. She is both stressed and excited. Good luck, Bob.