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Arboretum

Student Engagement

Internship Program

Our interns work alongside the horticulture, grounds, and education teams to gain hands-on training in all aspects of public garden management. Additionally, they advance their environmental education through plant-identification practice, field trips to other green organizations, conferences, and networking events.

Updates

Intern Projects

As a part of the summer internship program, we ask all interns to work on an internship project. This project can be in any discipline related to public gardens and horticulture but should be something that has benefits for both the Arboretum and the individual completing the project. Project topics include but are not limited to garden design, leading classes and tours, creating educational resources, and research opportunities.

Curriculum Involvement

Haverford College is home to just shy of 1,500 students who have the unique opportunity to interact with our Arboretum-—their entire campus during their four-year stay. Some choose to do so through recreational activities such as running along the Nature Trail, others may admire the beauty of the trees as they walk to class, or read and draw under the cherry blossoms. Some take their interaction one step further by enrolling in one of the many classes that choose to use our campus as a living laboratory.

Example projects:

ART, ECOLOGY, ACTIVISM (AEA)
Final Project Assignment: Creative Interventions Fall 2024

Design a creative intervention that demonstrates your understanding of the intersections of art, ecology, and activism.

English 305
"The Premodern Life of Trees: Interdisciplinarity and Literary Study of the Past"

Spend 15 minutes a week with a tree and journal about the experience.

#1
The Tree in Rain

It is hard to keep track of time
When the world falls into the rain
And drowns.
I stand under the tree,
Seeing shredded water drops
through every cleft of the crown,
Like the three thousand times it drops
Before I come.
You tree, the survivor of time,
have seen three thousand more twilight
Three thousand more sunrise
Three thousand more days
And rains and lives that’ve died.
Dear tree, please tell me
What’s the difference between
Rain and rain, time and time?
If there is no difference,
How do you have your years divide?
In the damp of early autumn,
We stand in silence,
And don’t remember
When the rain starts and ends.

- Tianyi Li '25

#2

Katsura tree, your pretty branches sway
Your leaves sweet-smelling as they putrefy,
Beautiful in how they gracefully decay
Before they fall and blow away - goodbye

A sturdy tree with multiple strong trunks,
Two codominant stems supporting you
Around you, searching for acorns, squirrels jump
I sit on nearby bench, enjoy the view.

You have a large and complex root system
And leaves become the hue of buttercups
Your leaves so sweet, people stop to sniff 'em
You fascinate animals, kids, grownups

You produce a dessert smell naturally
That I can't smell, 'cause of my allergy

- Julianna Watson '25