I started with a love for plants, drawn first to flowers and gardens. But it was when food became a deeper calling that I found my place in agriculture, where quality and purpose come together in meaningful ways. Like many students in plant science and horticulture, I was inspired by professors, lab work, and field visits. But what ultimately shaped my direction wasn’t found in a textbook. It was a decision to expand beyond what I already knew—to see how agriculture looked through a different lens.
During my university years, I chose to spend a full academic year in the Netherlands, studying at the HAS University of Applied Sciences in ’s-Hertogenbosch. Although I had visited the country many times before to see family, this was different: an immersive experience in a professional and academic environment where I was the only American in an international, English-speaking classroom of 13 students from seven other countries.
What I encountered was a masterclass in applied innovation—how growers build quality into every stage of production, how labor is mechanized and optimized for precision, and how the final product—whether fruit, flower, tree, or transplant—must meet a high bar, even if the grower never meets the end consumer.
We visited operations that blurred the line between greenhouse and factory floor. There were vines producing tomatoes six meters long, cut-flower facilities running like clockwork, and vegetable start propagation houses where trays of uniform seedlings reminded me that good agriculture is good design.
The most important insight I took away from this experience wasn’t just about Dutch horticulture—it was about what happens when we step outside our familiar environments to learn how others grow. When we immerse ourselves in new systems, cultures, and ways of thinking, we begin to see the limits of our own assumptions and the possibilities we never knew existed. It’s in those moments—whether walking a greenhouse in the Netherlands or hearing how another country tackles farm sustainability—that we unlock a deeper understanding of what agriculture can be.
What This Taught Me
Stay humble, and be relentlessly curious. There’s always someone, somewhere, doing something worth learning from. When we open ourselves to other ways of thinking and working—across countries, regions, or even disciplines—we strengthen agriculture. Cross-pollinating ideas is how we move from isolated progress to collective transformation.
Let’s Keep the Conversation Going
What experience changed the way you see agriculture?
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