North American Experience
Experiential learning is a hallmark of the Longwood Graduate Program, and the North American Experience represents one facet of this Program requirement. There is nothing better than meeting other public horticulture professionals, discussing current issues within the context of their own gardens, and touring new sites. Students on N.A.X. are assigned specific responsibilities that create a record of this year’s experience and utilize their writing, editing, and photographic skills. The process is a simple one. Each day, one student is the designated journalist, and another student is the photographer. The text and images you read and see in this blog represent the “final edit” for both, culled from an initial pool of hundreds of images and an original site report. Each photographer culls their photo set to only 16, and the instructor (Lyons) works with the student to cull the group further to 8; these 8 then go to the other students to choose the final 4 images. Each day’s text is first edited by Lyons, reviewed with the student, and then turned over to the rest of the students for a group edit, which is what appears in this blog.
