April 16th, 2002
Contact: Bud Grimes
"Green Thumb" Earns Student Top Horticulture Fellowship
Martin, Tennessee - Christie Jones will leave the University of Tennessee at Martin this May with a bachelor's degree in hand. What she will leave behind are her fingerprints on the university's landscaping, considered among the most attractive college-campus landscapes in Tennessee.
Jones, 21, who has spent almost three years working in the university's grounds area, next takes her landscaping talents to the University of Delaware and the Longwood Graduate Program, where she will pursue a master's degree in one of the country's premiere horticulture programs. Her talent and academic success earned Jones a prestigious Longwood Fellowship to study in the program.
The Longwood Graduate Program was established in 1967 as a cooperative graduate program between the University of Delaware and Longwood Gardens, a horticulture display garden once part of the Pierre Samuel duPont estate. The gardens are located in Kennett Square, Pa., 15 miles north of the University of Delaware's Newark campus.
Dr. James E. Swasey, University of Delaware plant and soil science professor and coordinator of the Longwood Graduate Program, said the Longwood Gardens affiliation is one reason the program is nationally recognized. Also, the program's comprehensive training in public horticulture sets it apart from other programs.
"It's a very competitive program. In most years, we accept only five students," Swasey said. "To be selected for an interview is good, but to be offered a fellowship is very, very good."
Jones said she first learned of the program last summer while working at the Missouri Botanic Gardens. Jones applied, participated in a five-day interview in early February, and learned the day after leaving Delaware that she was invited to join the program. She immediately accepted.
"It was really intense," Jones said of the interview process, which is designed to build a team that will work together through the fellowship experience. "There were 11 of us at the interview and they picked six." Candidates were from around the country and one from Canada, she said.
Jones said Longwood is a display garden where the primary emphasis is on beauty. Her goal is to complete the program and manage a botanic garden, which has an educational focus.
"Basically, I'm heading straight for being a director of a botanic garden," Jones said. "It's going to be a long road. There are a lot of steps to the ladder that I have to climb, but this program would definitely facilitate that climb. ...
"I do have several more years where I need to still stay in the dirt so to speak. I need to actually do the hands-on work, and then I'll climb from there into a supervisor's position, director of horticulture and then probably into director of a garden."
Although the Longwood program is demanding, Jones said she is more than prepared because of her UT Martin educational and work experiences.
"The best way to learn horticulture is through trial and error. I've made a lot of errors, and I've learned a lot from my mistakes," she laughed. "I've seen the mistakes of others around me and I've learned from those, too."
Years of "getting her hands dirty" have only confirmed Jones' love for her chosen field. Her first taste of working in horticulture came during her junior year at Westview High School in Martin when she first worked with a lawn company. She said she fell in love with the work the first day, and since then, some well-earned attention has come her way. A high point came last fall when she won the university's Beth Maloan Outstanding Student Employee Award.
"It (the award) meant a whole lot because I take so much pride in my work," Jones said. "Work is pretty much everything to me. Growing up, my mom taught me to be a good worker, and so I hope that's reflected here on campus, ... and it's really special to me for so many people to see what I've done and to recognize all the hard work that I've put in, and it just makes you want to work that much harder."
Jones is quick to share credit with others for her experiences and success. She has a special place in her heart for the university's grounds crew, including grounds manager Debra Spaduzzi.
Spaduzzi said Jones started as part of the greenhouse crew planting beds and working in the houses. "I quickly realized her potential and promoted her to crew leader where she motivated her team to excel," Spaduzzi said.
Jones was then promoted to student greenhouse supervisor where her duties included plant bed design and maintenance. "Christie has worked in all the beds on campus at some point," Spaduzzi added. "So really any bed you look at probably has her fingerprints in the mud."
So what really stands out about Spaduzzi's prize student worker? "Her incredible passion and motivation to excel," she said. "Christie's not afraid of hard work and will persevere until the job is complete. She is developing an eye for design that will serve her well in her future."
Another mentor is Guy Robbins. The longtime UT Martin horticulturist and grounds manager led UT Martin to national recognition for campus landscaping in 1993 when the university received a Grand Award from the Professional Grounds Management Society.
Robbins, now retired from the university, encouraged Jones to pursue the Missouri Botanic Gardens internship and said of Jones' most recent accomplishment that "it's almost impossible to get an interview at Longwood Gardens."
"She's a plants person, and she's one of those rare people that I have met that has that horticultural fire in the pit of her stomach," said Robbins, who also taught Jones in class. "She's brilliant, but she's levelheaded and a hard worker and very inquisitive and just yearning for learning in horticulture."
These are exciting times for Jones, but she admits that many changes are ahead. She will miss the university and her family as she moves away from Martin for the first time.
"No matter which school I had chosen, I was going to have to go far away, so they've (her parents, Donnie and Elwanda Jones) had a while to deal with that," she said. "My mom is still a little uneasy about her little girl moving off, but they support me. They know how much I love what I'm doing and they're behind me 100 percent."
Spaduzzi probably speaks for everyone who knows Christie Jones when she considers what lies ahead for this gifted student.
"I think Christie would have excelled in any profession she chose due to her work ethic and intelligence," Spaduzzi said. "When you combine that with her passion for plants, there's no stopping her from an incredible and unlimited future in horticulture."
