The Kishwaukee College Horticulture students competed in the Professional Landcare Network (PLANET) Student Career Days held at Kansas State University in March. The annual competition draws over 60 schools from across the United States. The Kishwaukee team earned a 2nd Place finish in Landscape Installation and 5th Place in Hardscape Installation. Pictured at PLANET is the Kishwaukee College Horticulture Team, L to R: Jacob Koch, Jason Toth, Nick Ebens, Raul Guerrero, Kelly Kuchelmeister, Josh Langholf, Elizabeth Fansler, Katie Piper, Kim Mauthe, Jim Williams, Peggy Redington, and Kishwaukee College Horticulture instructor Jim Knoll.
KC hort students compete in PLANET Career Days
The Kishwaukee College Horticulture students competed in the Professional Landcare Network (PLANET) Student Career Days held at Kansas State University in March. The annual competition draws over 60 schools from across the United States. The Kishwaukee team earned a 2nd Place finish in Landscape Installation and 5th Place in Hardscape Installation. Pictured at PLANET is the Kishwaukee College Horticulture Team, L to R: Jacob Koch, Jason Toth, Nick Ebens, Raul Guerrero, Kelly Kuchelmeister, Josh Langholf, Elizabeth Fansler, Katie Piper, Kim Mauthe, Jim Williams, Peggy Redington, and Kishwaukee College Horticulture instructor Jim Knoll.
Monday, April 9, 2012
Kishwaukee College sent a team of horticulture students to compete in the Professional Landcare Network (PLANET) Student Career Days. The 36th annual national competition and career expo was held March 22 - 25 at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas. This was the second year that Kishwaukee College Horticulture students competed in this nationwide event.
Horticulture faculty member Jim Knoll accompanied the students to the competition. “PLANET is a very large event,” he said. “Over 60 colleges and universities from across the country competed-some fielded large teams of nearly 30 students. We took 11 students.” The Kishwaukee team placed respectably well in their individual events, taking Second Place in a field of 58 entries in Landscape Plant Installation and Fifth Place in a field of 50 participating schools in Hardscape Installation.
In addition to the competition, PLANET is known for being a networking event and draws a variety of horticulture-based companies from across the United States that are there to meet the top students in the country. “Companies get an opportunity to meet the best students from the country and see them compete and students can make a great connection,” Knoll added. “But it was also excellent from an academic and educational standpoint. Some of our better students want to compete and a large national competition like PLANET makes the better students want to be even better and inspires other students to improve to be able to compete, too.” PLANET 2013 will be held at Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama.
For more information on the horticulture programs at Kishwaukee College, contact 815-825-2086, ext. 2830. Registration for the Summer and Fall 2012 semesters is currently in progress. For more information on registration, contact ext. 2740 or visit www.kishwaukeecollege.edu.
