Two Minuteman High School Horticulture Students Participate in National Park Service Program

By Judy Bass

Two students from Minuteman High School in Lexington recently had the opportunity of a lifetime - they were able to savor the natural environment while learning all about how to preserve and maintain it, thanks to their participation in a program called “Branching Out: An Exploration in Landscape Management for City Youth” sponsored by the Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation of the National Park Service.

Seniors Andreas Aluia of Somerville and Jack Gallagher of Needham, both of whom are studying Horticulture & Landscaping Technology at Minuteman, were among 13 students selected for the highly selective program this year out of an applicant pool of over 100, according to Michelle Pizzillo, internship coordinator of “Branching Out.”

Traits that are desired in the students who are accepted by the program, she said, are a notable level of interest and commitment to it, a willingness to learn, and eagerness to explore the field of landscape management. Gallagher has a self-proclaimed affinity for working with his hands, while Aluia loves being outside, growing things.

Following a rigorous application process, Aluia and Gallagher, the first students from Minuteman to ever be part of “Branching Out,” were picked for the program’s field team of 16- to 18-year-olds. They put in eight 40-hour paid weeks working in several parks overseen by the National Park Service, “helping to keep them clean, beautiful, and open to the public,” said Pizzillo, thus partaking of education plus valuable hands-on experience.

Those parks included Adams National Historical Park in Quincy; the Longfellow National Historic Site in Cambridge.; Sagamore Hill in Oyster Bay, New York, the ancestral home of President Theodore Roosevelt; Minute Man National Historical Park in Concord., Peddocks Island of the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area; and the Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site.

”At each park,” explained Aluia, “we had a different project.” For example, at Adams National Historical Park, the team mowed and raked an orchard and trimmed rose bushes. At Longfellow, they tended the boxwoods.

These outdoor projects allow the students to apply what they learn in the classroom, said Pizzillo. They get to use machinery and hand tools, identify plants, experience being outdoors, and acquire new, related skills. As for the applicability of Aluia’s and Gallagher’s Minuteman horticultural training, Pizzillo said “their prior knowledge helped them make connections at a deeper level [of understanding].”

In fact, the two young men from Minuteman were so well-versed in their subject that they assisted the other students on the team when they needed help. Gallagher said, “We taught others in the group how to do things” and he especially liked “teaching and working with people my age.”

Aluia added that what he learned at Minuteman benefited him while he was working in the parks, and vice versa. One of his favorite aspects of “Branching Out” was tree climbing, which the students were taught how to do safely. Aluia said he was never scared of being thirty feet off the ground in a tree; attaining that lofty perch actually gave him “a great feeling,” he declared.

To demonstrate their grasp of what they just learned, explained Pizzillo, there was a “teach back” following each week’s activities during which the students were expected to present their knowledge in front of an audience of Park staff members.

Pizzillo mentioned that students who complete the “Branching Out” program often go on to careers in natural resources management or park stewardship. Some opt for being garden supervisors in the Park Service. Still others want further education in agriculture, biology or forestry at two- or four-year educational institutions, she said.

Aluia said he hopes to eventually pursue professional opportunities in horticulture or agriculture. He is reapplying to “Branching Out” to snag another learning experience there during the upcoming school year and he has a co-op position at Minute Man National Historical Park.

Gallagher is also applying again to “Branching Out” so he can do a ten-week park-based internship designed for individuals in the 18- to 25-year-old category. In addition, he is applying to UMass-Amherst to earn his associate’s degree in horticulture.

Ask Gallagher if he would recommend “Branching Out” to other young people who have a passionate interest in the natural world, and he instantly replies with tremendous gusto: “Yes, to the thousandth degree over the moon!”

Minuteman High School provides its students with a superb academic and technical education that readies them for professional success and gives them the ability to become contributing members of the community. Minuteman’s rigorous, challenging curriculum prepares students to excel in an increasingly competitive 21st century global economy. In addition, Minuteman has numerous services available for the public at reasonable cost and of outstanding quality. Please visit www.minuteman.org for more information on Minuteman High School.