On November 17, Vicki Stirm delivered a presentation to a local chapter of the PEO Sorority on the topic of Poinsettias. She began by sharing the history of Cuetlaxochitl (pronounced kwet-la-sho-she), the original Nahuatl name for the poinsettia, which is native to Mexico. Vicki then discussed Joel Poinsett, explaining how the plant came to be[Read More…]
The Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture participated in the Majors, Minors, and More Exploratory College Fair, alongside the College of Agriculture and other academic units from across campus. The event offered students a chance to explore diverse academic programs and connect with faculty and peers. HLA’s table was coordinated by Rachael Carter, with support[Read More…]
On July 15th, Vicki Stirm and Karen Mitchell hosted 29 folks of Caleb’s Kin group from Faith East Ministries of Lafayette for a garden tour of the Jules Janick Hort Gardens. We talked about different plants in the landscape, as well as talking about the Bioswale on the corner of the Pao lot and the[Read More…]
Several HLA faculty and staff participated in a “Seed Your Future” lunch and learn event on June 3 for 30 high school science teachers who visited Purdue to learn more about careers in plant sciences. Thank you to Kyle Daniel, Yiwei Huang, Petrus Langenhoven, Ying Li, Brandon McNally, Steve Meyers, Karen Mitchell, Linda Prokopy, Gloribel[Read More…]
On June 20, members from the HLA Department hosted 46 students and their chaperones from the Felege Hiywot Center. Dr. Kathryn Orvis and her graduate student Elyssa have been holding classes for BIPOC students at the center in Indianapolis for the past seven weeks. During their visit to campus, the students participated in various activities[Read More…]
Vicki Stirm hosted two outreach activities this week. The first activity was the C-PASA (Gargill – Purdue Agribusiness & Science Academy) Summer Program. Nine high school students who were interested in attending Purdue University in the future in a plant science area of study participated in the program. The students were taken on a tour[Read More…]
Krishna Nemali and Sangrak Son (Ph.D. student in Nemali’s lab) are continuing their outreach and engagement work at Otterbein Elementary School, Indiana. The goal of their project is to shift the attitudes in schoolchildren towards healthy eating by providing both hands on and curriculum-based training. They installed indoor hydroponic systems to enable schoolchildren produce leafy[Read More…]
On Friday, April 28th, Chris Adair and Vicki Stirm presented to youth from the World Food Prize Youth Institute. There were 3 groups totaling 28 students plus adults. The topic was food security. Chris spoke about the student farm and how they reach out to the community via the CSA program and working with the[Read More…]








