Seed Your Future: New Initiatives, New Cabinet Members

Chris Beytes

Seed Your Future, the SAF partner that promotes horticulture and inspires people to pursue careers working with plants, has several new initiatives planned for 2022:

• Adding a job board aggregator that will connect job seekers interested in plant careers with grower and retailer job openings

• Conducting an industry salary
survey so job seekers understand the wage ranges across industry sectors and positions

• Partnering with colleges and universities to inform high school and middle school teachers about career exploration and education opportunities in green industry sectors

• Hosting the fifth year of the Plant Mash-up contest for middle-schoolers across the country, which gives students the opportunity to see themselves as problem-solvers, learn they can impact their community, and have fun with plants and flowers

In addition to that news, Seed Your Future has announced the appointment of six new members to its National Leadership Cabinet. The new members are:

• Michelle Castellano Keeler, Vice President of Mellano & Company

• Abel Guzman, Executive Director of College Pathways at The Wonderful Company

• Dr. Ronda Hamm, Global Academic Relations Leader for Corteva Agriscience

• Kerry Meyer, Program Director for Proven Winners

• Kate Penn, CEO of Society of American Florists

• Mark Schermer, Head of Flowers at Syngenta

This brings the number of leadership members to 16. Each of the new cabinet members has years of experience with a wide array of professions in horticulture and floriculture. Seed Your Future hopes the new members will help the organization reach more students and young adults.

“We are excited to find more ways to connect job seekers with industry job openings in all disciplines of the supply chain,” said Executive Director Jazmin Albarran. GT