When visiting The Arboretum this summer, you may have seen a few new faces working on the grounds and in the Kentucky Children’s Garden. Thanks in part to funding from the UK Student Sustainability Council, we were able to hire five UK student interns for the summer of 2024. Though they are returning to classes for the fall, they will continue to work at The Arboretum on a reduced schedule. 

Our two native plant interns, Katie and Josh, worked throughout the 80-acre native plant collection and Arboretum woods this summer. Katie and Josh’s work consisted of day-to-day maintenance of the grounds, updating plant labels on our trees and shrubs, propagating native plants for the collection, and creating social media highlights and educational signage about native plants and The Arboretum. We are thrilled to have these passionate, hard-working, and curious students on our team! 

Katie Taliaferro
Native Plants Intern
Katie is a junior in the UK Horticulture program and the current President of the UK Horticulture Club. Previously, Katie worked as a Native Plant Nursery Intern to grow native plants for the horticulture club’s regular plant sales. She is passionate about growing native plants and eager to learn more. Katie’s favorite plant is twinleaf (Jeffersonia diphylla), a delicate spring wildflower with unique pairs of leaves that resemble wings. Katie aspires to work in plant production in the future and to get more native plants out in our landscapes.

Joshua Craig
Native Plants Intern
Josh is a junior in the UK Landscape Architecture program. He grew up in Hopkins County and moved to Lexington for college. Josh hopes to learn more about native plants and their growing requirements, so that he can better select and site plants for his landscape designs. During his free time, Josh is an avid runner and participates in UK’s club running teams. Josh loves the arid landscape of the mountain states and his favorite plants are the evergreen trees (pine, spruce, fir, and cedar) that grow there.

In the Kentucky Children’s Garden, our three interns Abby, Andrea, and Mae, helped lead environmental education programs for children and their families. They were able to gain experience developing and leading educational programming, planting and maintaining garden spaces, interacting with young children and their families, and learning about a range of environmental topics.

Abby Little
Kentucky Children’s Garden Intern
Abby is a senior Biology major at UK with a minor in Appalachian Studies. She is from Eastern Kentucky, where she spent much of her childhood outdoors. This, combined with helping her grandparents in their garden, sparked her interest in the environment and conservation. Throughout the season, Abby enjoyed watching children learn about their environment in a fun way.

Andrea Hicks
Kentucky Children’s Garden Intern
Andrea is a senior Natural Resources and Environmental Science major at UK with a certificate in Urban Community. She was influenced by her father, who was a Natural Resources and Conservation major, and the family farm that she tended to over the summers of her childhood. Andrea plans to attend graduate school to learn more about restoration and agricultural systems. Ultimately, she hopes to help family farms and teach others how to farm in a more sustainable manner. 

Mae Hanna
Kentucky Children’s Garden Intern
Mae is a junior Natural Resources and Environmental Science major at UK with a certificate in Distillation, Wine, and Brewing Studies. With multiple family members in environmental fields, the environment played a major role in her childhood. Now, she is a plant mom to over 30 different houseplants! She is hoping to go into the field of sustainability consulting and sustainable agriculture.