Thanks to a grant we received from the LoveIVLawrence Foundation in 2020 and again in 2021, we were able to launch a therapeutic horticulture program specifically for students at the University of Florida who struggle with stress, anxiety, depression, and loneliness. I described this program in a previous newsletter and since then we have continued to offer the program, collect data on its effects, and look for additional funding to keep it going.
We were thrilled to learn that we had been awarded $474,604 in President Sasse’s Strategic Funding Initiative to expand the student therapeutic horticulture program over the next three years. This was based in part on the program’s ability to demonstrate decreased stress and anxiety and increased academic resilience in several cohorts of UF students.
The expanded initiative, entitled Connecting Students with Cultivated and Natural Spaces to Promote Wellness, has four goals:
- Expand student access to structured therapeutic horticulture programming
- Offer drop-in therapeutic horticulture sessions around campus at known times of student stress (e.g. mid-terms and finals)
- Provide opportunities for students to stay connected with plants and nature by developing partnerships with other areas and organizations on and near campus
- Develop program materials and training to facilitate plant and nature connection with students at UF/IFAS Research and Education Centers around the state
A significant portion of this funding was earmarked for a new therapeutic horticulture education specialist to support the program’s expansion. I am pleased to announce that we have hired Lauren St. Clair to fill that position.
Lauren is a graduate of the University of Florida with a degree in Environmental Science and the Certificate in Horticultural Therapy. She worked with the therapeutic horticulture program as an intern during her last semester at UF. She was a great asset to the program and demonstrated many great skills in connecting students and our other therapeutic horticulture participants with the wonders of the growing world around us.
Lauren’s path was not a straight line! She is the daughter of a tree farmer and an educator with a passion for psychology. This led her in many directions, from assistant teaching elementary education to greenhouse management and sales. She has also worked extensively as a dog trainer, analyzing canine behavior to support veterans with PTSD as well as scent detection work. All of this helped her find her way to Wilmot Botanical Gardens and the therapeutic horticulture program. She enrolled in and completed the Certificate in Horticultural Therapy at UF and honed her ability to help people with plants.
Lauren told me that having witnessed firsthand the positive effects that the therapeutic horticulture program has on participants’ overall well-being strengthened her desire to help people through creating connections to horticulture. She has experienced a grounding connection her entire life when directly engaging with plants and as a result has always found herself drawn to plants and nature in times of stress: “In a challenging world, it reminds me to nurture my internal and external garden and to focus on new growth.”
We are so excited to have Lauren on our team and look forward to all the opportunities for her to help us grow the program and develop new partnerships and collaborations. Welcome, Lauren!
Elizabeth “Leah” Diehl, RLA, HTM
Lecturer, Dept. of Environmental Horticulture, College of Agricultural and Life Sciences
Director of Therapeutic Horticulture, Wilmot Botanical Gardens, College of Medicine