Students place third in Student Career Days

Students from Virginia Tech placed third out of 56 schools in the 29th annual Student Career Days. This conference is designed for students in landscape contracting programs to talk with professionals. Students also compete with other schools in contests relevant to their field of study, such as annual and perennial identification and irrigation design.

The conference, sponsored by PLANET, Professional Landcare Network, formally known as ALCA, Associated Landscape Contractors of America, is designed for students to network with industry members and interview for jobs and internships. It also has 23 event competitions in which students can compete against other students from around the nation. The score is based on the cumulative achievements of each school’s team. This was the 10th time the Hokies participated in the conference and their second highest finish. (Virginia Tech finished second in Dallas in 1997).

Twenty-three students and two faculty members, Assistant Professor of Horticulture Holly Scoggins and Associate Professor of Horticulture Robert McDuffie attended the conference.

There were a record 56 schools and 850 students participating in this year's Student Career Days.

Other Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences’ students who won awards were: Jason Coiner, a senior horticulture major from Fisherville, Va., and Sonya Lepper, also a senior horticulture major from Roanoke, Va., finished fourth and fifth in the Superstar Competition. The Superstar award is given to the student with the highest number of points in the competition. Also, two students placed in the top three in their events: Adam Boyd, a senior crop and soil environmental science major from Danville, Va., placed first in the Irrigation Design competition, and Lewayne Luttrell, a senior horticulture major from Roanoke, was awarded third in the Maintenance Cost Estimation event.Consistently ranked by the National Science Foundation among the top 10 institutions in agricultural research, Virginia Tech’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences offers students the opportunity to learn from some of the world’s leading agricultural scientists. The college’s comprehensive curriculum gives students a balanced education that ranges from food and fiber production to economics to human health. The college is a national leader in incorporating technology, biotechnology, computer applications, and other recent scientific advances into its teaching program.

Founded in 1872 as a land-grant college, Virginia Tech has grown to become among the largest universities in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Today, Virginia Tech’s eight colleges are dedicated to putting knowledge to work through teaching, research, and outreach activities and to fulfilling its vision to be among the top research universities in the nation. At its 2,600-acre main campus located in Blacksburg and other campus centers in Northern Virginia, Southwest Virginia, Hampton Roads, Richmond, and Roanoke, Virginia Tech enrolls more than 28,000 full- and part-time undergraduate and graduate students from all 50 states and more than 100 countries in 180 academic degree programs.