Student Shares Appreciation of Nature through Botany Courses

Posted in Learning Experiences, People on June 3 2009, by Plant Talk

Earns Certificate to Be Awarded at Weekend Ceremony

Stephan Chenault is Director of Science Development.

This Sunday I will receive my Continuing Education Certificate in Botany. I enrolled in the program soon after joining the Garden’s staff, in August 1998. My decision to study botany was based on a love of nature that dates from my childhood. I still remember my mother taking me on a walk in the woods around Lake George at the age of three and how much I appreciated and was fascinated by acorns, oak leaves, chipmunks, and mushrooms. My goal in pursuing the Botany Certificate was to gain more knowledge of plant life and the natural world so that I would have a key to turn other people on to the natural world.

My past experiences in nature education have been as a counselor and teacher at a camp in New Hampshire. Helping children encounter and enjoy the environment through hikes, nature walks, aquarium- and terrarium-building, gardening, and art has been one of my most rewarding vocations. Later, as a volunteer activist in the Sierra Club, the country’s largest environmental organization, I would participate and help lead hikes with my activist collaborators. Many of these volunteer partners switched careers and became full-time professional environmental leaders, and I, myself, switched careers to take on a position in science fundraising for The New York Botanical Garden.

The knowledge I have gained from being a student in the Continuing Education program has been very helpful to me in understanding the Garden’s scientific programs and describing them to potential donors in the philanthropic community.

I pursued what was then the Field Studies track of the Botany Certificate (the certificate was streamlined just this past year and no longer is divided into “tracks”), because it focused on identifying and learning about local flora. I especially enjoyed the field trips around the Botanical Garden and to wonderful places like Pelham Bay and Van Cortlandt Parks to experience and hear about plants, their habitats, and biology. I was impressed by how specific the habitat requirements are for many plants; for example, some require freshwater wetlands and some grasses grow only in saltwater tidal areas. The Continuing Education program’s instructors were so knowledgeable and enthusiastic about plants, anyone would catch their passion for nature by osmosis.

My Botany Certificate courses ranged from understanding the molecular pathways of photosynthesis to understanding the evolutionary history and relationships of plants and the ecology of forests and wetlands. It was wonderful to study with classmates who were also really interested in learning about plants.

I’m looking forward to the Certificate graduation ceremony on June 7, and I plan to continue taking courses in the Continuing Education program to learn more about plants, their uses, and their role in the environment.

Thanks to all of my instructors in the Continuing Education program for a wonderful educational experience and to my fellow students for sharing this experience with me.

The Continuing Education Certificate Awards Ceremony for all seven disciplines takes place on Sunday, June 7, beginning at 2 p.m. in the Arthur and Janet Ross Lecture Hall, where 123 students will receive their certificates.