Logo courtesy of Seed Your Future
Seed Your Future, the national nonprofit dedicated to inspiring students to pursue careers in horticulture and plant sciences, convened its 2026 National Leadership Meeting Sept. 9 to 11 at NC State University, bringing together 40 leaders from universities, industry and high school Career and Technical Education programs under the theme "Building the Bridge: Connecting CTE Pathways to Horticulture Careers."
The three-day meeting was designed to close a gap SYF has heard about consistently from the field: high school students interested in plants and the outdoors rarely see a clear, realistic path from the classroom into a horticulture career — whether that path runs through a two-year community college program, a four-year degree or straight into the workforce.
By seating CTE teachers, universities and industry employers at the same table, SYF said it structured the meeting around direct, candid exchange rather than one-way presentations.
"Every answer in that room was really about the same student," said Jazmin Albarran, executive director of Seed Your Future. "The student a teacher is trying to prepare to graduate. The student an employer is trying to hire. The student a university is trying to reach. This meeting was about making sure that when a student picks horticulture, everyone standing between them and that career — whether that's a two-year program, a four-year degree or a job on day one — is pulling in the same direction."
Sessions included a "Before You Hire Us" panel, where horticulture undergraduate and graduate students gave employers unfiltered insight into what motivates and concerns today's workforce entrants. In small-group conversations, five partner universities answered direct questions from CTE educators about affordability, admissions and realistic next steps for their students.
The universities were the University of Mount Olive (North Carolina), the University of Florida, the University of Arkansas, the University of Georgia and NC State.
"The CTE teachers and industry representatives discussed helpful perspectives about how universities can build more defined pathways from high school towards fulfilling horticultural careers, as well as the key role of hands-on learning and mentorship to help develop a student's emerging talent," said DinaLiebowitz, plant science program director at the University of Florida.
For CTE teachers, the meeting offered something they rarely get: direct access to both the universities and the employers their students will encounter.
"Since participating in Seed to STEM, I've been much more intentional about bringing careers into my classroom," said Sara Beth Veazie, a 2026 Seed to STEM participant and agricultural educator at Apex High School in North Carolina. "As a high school agricultural educator, I'm on the front lines of helping students discover careers they may not have known existed, so it was incredibly valuable to bring that perspective back to the Seed Your Future meeting."
Travis Gonzales, a CTE horticulture teacher from Brenham Independent School District in Texas, echoed that sense of clarity.
"Attending the Seed Your Future National Meeting was an eye-opening experience that included a deep dive into the horticulture industry from high school to the real world," Gonzales said. "It has given me a clearer picture on how to promote the horticulture industry to students and how to connect with local industry professionals to provide meaningful educational experiences to our horticulture students."
"Being in a room with university representatives, CTE horticulture teachers and professionals from across the green industry reinforced that none of us can solve the workforce challenge alone," said Jake Scott, general manager of Piedmont Feed & Garden Center in North Carolina. "As a former high school horticulture teacher and FFA adviser, this work is deeply personal to me — I've seen how one teacher, one class or one meaningful experience can introduce a young person to opportunities they never knew existed."
The conversations, insights and commitments generated during the meeting will directly inform a new set of career exploration resources SYF will develop and release in 2027. The resources will give CTE teachers, counselors and students clearer, more practical tools for navigating the path into horticulture careers.
"This industry has real, well-paying careers to offer the next generation — we just have to make the on-ramps visible," Albarran said. "That's exactly what this group started building together at NC State."