From the Director’s Desk

Afriend recently asked me, “So, how do you like the new job?”

I’ve been serving as our interim Director for a year now, and without hesitation, I replied, “I love it!” After a moment’s thought, I added, “I get to do new things almost every day.”

Cover: INAG250 lecturer, Tom Mazzone, working with Wesley Schriver on improving his weld.

At the IAA, in any given week, I might…

• Sample a set of brews at a local coffee roasting business and share our students’ Zoom chat with the grower;

• Get drenched planting strawberries at the Community Learning Garden;

• Hit the road to visit an alumnus at the Philadelphia Flower Show;

• Interview a set of intriguing candidates for a faculty position;

Part of that variety comes from the students themselves, who are preparing for a wildly diverse set of careers. When people think of “agriculture,” farming may be the first thing that leaps to mind, but at the IAA, students also become golf course superintendents, entrepreneurs of all kinds, veterinary technicians, greenhouse managers, landscapers and arborists, environmental activists or field technicians, educators, managers of public gardens and green spaces...I could go on for hours. If it’s connected to things that grow, IAA students study it.

And that’s why I love it here.Yes, like most administrators, I also spend a lot of time filling out forms–someone has to do it!–but there is no such thing as a dull day at the IAA.

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• Watch student presentations in Agricultural Entrepreneurship;

• Help a student choose courses for next year;

• Get up early to welcome guests on a cool, misty morning at our Shields Golf Tournament;

• Visit an intern at their work site, whether that’s the Smithsonian National Zoo or an on-farm brewery.

In other words, every day at the IAA is full of variety.

Heather McHale

Director