Student Leadership

Landscape Assistant

Job Opportunity for Student Landscape Assistant

Join the Arboretum and Public Garden team to help steward our landscapes! Student landscape assistants will work independently and in teams, as well as assist in the leadership of volunteer groups. Master your skills in garden maintenance, installation and safe machinery operation. Develop experience in plant identification, plant records and mapping. This position also provides the opportunity to develop leadership skills in public garden outreach and management.

Waterway Landscape Assistant

Student Job Opportunity for Waterway Landscape Assistant

Join the Arboretum’s student staff team to steward our campus landscapes and the Arboretum Waterway while gaining valuable hands-on experience. Help us prepare for the implementation of our new $7.9 M project to redesign the Arboretum Waterway for flood protection and habitat enhancement. Work with and learn from horticulturists, landscape architects, engineers and habitat restorationists on storm water management, land stewardship and management, gardening, scientific monitoring and habitat re-creation.

Seeing Red?

Chair Share – a program that aims to encourage our community to spend more time outside. Studies show that even a short time outdoors can reduce stress and improve mood, among a variety of other social and well-being benefits.

Students keep our landscapes alive with pollinators

Elizabeth Hursh ’22 is happiest when surrounded by hummingbirds, bees and other busy pollinators in the Arboretum and Public Garden. Their presence means she’s doing her job right.

As a Co-Coordinator with our Learning by Leading™ Habitat Horticulture program, Elizabeth is helping transform landscapes into gorgeous garden habitats, with an emphasis on sustainable practices and plant-pollinator interactions.

Internship Opportunity: Urban Tree Stewardship

Earn units while helping to propagate and care for trees with a focus on climate tolerance and improving the longevity and resilience of our campus canopy as an intern for the Learning by Leading™ Urban Tree Stewardship Program.

Through this internship, students will learn about urban forest management and build field observation, project management and leadership skills as they transplant, maintain, monitor and assess trees and plan community engagement activities.

NOW HIRING 20+ Student Landscape Assistants for the Summer

 The Arboretum and Public Garden team maintains all of the campus landscape. As part of our "Campus Recommissioning" effort to prepare for the return of students, faculty and staff to in-person instruction this fall, we are recruiting summer student employees to work throughout campus on landscape maintenance and improvements.

2021 Pinkerton Prize Winners Announced

The Pinkerton Prize for Outstanding Student Contributions to the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden was created in the early 1990s by Bret Hewitt and his late wife Deborah Pinkerton, the first environmental education employee at the Arboretum and Public Garden. The prize honors exceptional Learning by Leading™ students participating in our environmental education programs. The 2021 award winners were Aliciá Ayala, Anita Shahriary and Laura Gomez.