For many years, Millcreek has proudly offered summer internships to college students interested in the horticulture industry. Our interns are able to learn many aspects of a wholesale nursery including production, plant culture, shipping procedures, and customer service as they rotate through our various departments on a set schedule. Our rotations expose them to our entire team and allows them to get a feel for each division of running a nursery. We recently interviewed our summer interns so they could share what they experienced in order for future interns to have an idea of what to expect.
Meet the Interns:
Matt, an Ohio University student, is majoring in Environmental Biology with a minor in Plant Biology. He is passionate about issues facing our environment and found out about the internship opportunity through a current Millcreek team member.
Dana is a recent graduate from The Ohio State University with a major in Ecological Engineering. She discovered the internship opportunity through OSU’s online job board.
Our interns get to spend two weeks with each department. Here’s what they had to say.
Dana: I liked rotating between each department and thought they were well-planned. I felt like I really got to know all the team members. Working with each section grower was fun and I enjoyed learning their processes. I liked learning more about pests and diseases. Propagation was my favorite rotation as I got to understand the whole process about cuttings and starting plants. I was also very grateful that the owner, George, spent a day with us to show how he got his business to where it is today. All the rotations between departments made me understand better how the business is run and I saw first-hand what a good company culture was like. Spending the day at Cultivate’21 was a lot of fun too.
Matt: The rotations were a good amount of time, so we got to learn a lot. There are knowledgeable people in each department so there was always something new to learn. Propagation was cool to see the process and working under each Section Grower was fun. We got to see the whole picture of how the business works and the moving parts to it. I liked going to Cultivate’21 as it expanded my view on the plant industry and I enjoyed learning about all the vendors in the industry.
Our Section Growers assigned you each a special project for the company. What did you work on?
Matt: I worked on finding a new drip irrigation option for the Peony crop. I researched various options and found a solution that I thought would work best for Millcreek’s crops and did a presentation about it. The old tubing clogs easily so moving to dripper lines instead will make watering easier.
Dana: I researched new 16” decorative pots to use for Millcreek’s combination planters. It was fun to see all the options and make some suggestions. I never knew there were so many options of pots out there!
What advice do you have for future Millcreek interns?
Both:
- Ask as many questions as you can.
- Keep a positive attitude
- Have a mindset of the people you are shadowing so you can ask the right questions.
Any final thoughts?
Matt: The bar has been set high for my next internship.
Dana: I feel like we were welcomed in as family at Millcreek.
Thank you, Matt & Dana, for your hard work this summer. We loved having you a part of the Millcreek team!