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Outside the School Halls and Within the Garden Walls
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who interned at the Morris during their senior year.
“Quercus!”
“Magnolia!”
“Acer and Ilex! Oh, and I learned how to not bump into branches!”
These are a few of the responses from our high school interns to the question, “What did you learn during your internship?”
High school internships at Morris Arboretum & Gardens are all about getting outside the school halls and within the garden walls. Kevin Hennigan and Jo Schirling, both 2024 graduates of Lankenau Environmental Science Magnet High School, spent every Tuesday and Thursday of their senior year interning at the Morris.
Some days they decimated pests and diseases in the greenhouse. Other days they loaded trucks with debris tossed down from the trees by our arborists. They created a scavenger hunt for the Education department, took phone calls in reception, greeted visitors at the entrance kiosk. Many, many days they assisted Plant Science, using satellite technology to take geolocation “points” in the garden as part of the Morris Arboretum & Gardens Plant Collection and Management Project.
The internships are part of our ongoing outreach to public and charter schools in northwest Philadelphia. Along with field trips and summer workforce development programs, Morris is a host site for students in Lankenau’s Agriculture Food and Natural Resources (AFNR) internship program.
And what did they learn? In addition to being able to identify trees by their scientific names, Kevin and Jo both acknowledge picking up soft skills like understanding how departments are interconnected, what a “reporting structure” is, and even that you have to wash your own mug after dipping into the free hot chocolate.
They learned about themselves, that they liked being part of team, but not so much prepping for education programs. And they learned that no place, not even one that is all about nature and beauty, functions without what they both called ‘bureaucracy.’ “You can’t do anything without checking in with someone else. You have to go to meetings.” In other words, a high school internship at the Morris is not just a day at the "beech."
This fall, Jo is off to the University of Alaska to study earth science with a concentration in biosphere, and Kevin is headed to Temple to pursue a degree in electrical engineering. The Morris is proud to be a steppingstone on their paths to success!