Internship with Hidden Creek Landscaping emphasized in commercial landscape installs.
A drone view of the 30,000 plant perennial garden my crew installed over the summer.
Photo credit: Hidden Creek Landscaping Inc.
Over the previous summer I had the opportunity to intern with Hidden Creek Landscaping in Hilliard, Ohio. Before I even started work I was told that their focus was to bring out the best in me and to help develop leadership skills necessary for the future. Although it wasn’t easy, I can proudly say this internship helped me become a better leader and gave me a whole new respect for the landscaping industry.
On my first day at work I was put on an all Hispanic crew which was the first time I worked with people who spoke very little English. Besides the present language barrier I also had another thing against me which was the fact that Hispanic workers don’t typically care for working with college students. We have a reputation of being lazy workers and especially the guys that I worked with didn’t want any slackers on the crew. To fix that problem I realized I just needed to do what I do best and that was work has hard as possible and don’t complain. Our first project was a 30,000 plant perennial garden install so I was able to prove to them I could work. I knew I was doing something right when I had my boss and the owners of the company interested in how well I ended up fitting into my crew.
Now that I had the respect of my crew mates I was able to over come the language barrier as well. Although I wasn’t fluently speaking Spanish I could botch together enough words to get my message across. We would use visuals such as pointing to the correct plants and where they should go or show how to put a plant in the ground. Everyone on the crew had a translator app on their phones to help when no one knew what each other way saying. When we would run into problems on the sites, I would take charge since I was able to relay information to our boss better than the rest. My crew really appreciated the fact that I was able to take control of a situation and solve the issue. I really enjoyed the challenge of commercial plant installs and the guys I worked with. My hard work paid off because I have a full time position as foreman once I graduate in May.