Alexandria, VA – Dozens of agriculture, floriculture and horticulture companies nationwide will connect with high school students to showcase careers within their businesses during Seed Your Future’s inaugural Green Career Week October 3-7, 2022.
Participating businesses will do at least one of three things: invite high school students to visit their business; send company representatives to high schools to talk about career opportunities; or join a social media campaign to promote green careers.
Seed Your Future, the Society of American Florists’ partner organization that connects students with green jobs, hopes the event will showcase the variety of careers in the industry, including those in STEM, business management, design, and marketing.
“No matter a student’s passion, they can find that career in these industries,” says Seed Your Future Executive Director Jazmin Albarran.
Seed Your Future offers step-by-step instructions for reaching out to schools, as well as detailed itineraries for student activities and a sample news release for companies to use to spread the word. Companies must register for the event to receive those resources.
“We created these tools to make it easy for companies to participate in the event,” Albarran says. “Companies of all sizes can take part.”
The event already has nearly 60 companies registered, including Ball Seed, whose regional business manager, Erick Harris, proposed the idea and worked with Albarran to bring it to fruition.
“When I talk to young people in colleges majoring in horticulture, many are not aware that in addition to research and development and propagation, our industry also has sales, logistics, IT, customer relations, and supply management/procurement departments,” Harris says. “Seed Your Future is uniquely equipped to lead this effort. We just need more people to get on board, participate, and support the initiative and Seed Your Future.”
Lee’s Flower and Card Shop in Washington is also registered for Green Career Week.
Co-owner Stacie Lee Banks believes that collectively the event will help the floral industry talent pipeline. She is using the resources from Seed Your Future to begin planning how the business will participate.
Read more about the event here and click here for information and registration.
About The Society of American Florists
The Society of American Florists is the association that connects and cultivates a thriving floral community through training, education, marketing resources and advocacy. Our vision: The power of flowers in every life. For more information, visit SAFNow.org.
