Students in the North Dakota State Horticulture and Forestry Club traveled to the 2018 National Collegiate Landscape Competition, held March 14-17.

The National Collegiate Landscape Competition is an annual three-day competition and networking event for students enrolled in interior and exterior horticulture programs at two- and four-year colleges and universities across the country.

Every year, a different host location is selected, which gives the participants a chance to see different parts of the country and also increases the level of difficulty for some of the outdoor competitions.

More than 750 landscape industry students from 62 universities and colleges demonstrate their skills in 30 real-world competitive events, coupled with an outstanding career fair. Students are able to demonstrate skills in arboriculture techniques, flower & foliage identification, exterior/interior landscape design, irrigation assembly/design/troubleshooting, truck & trailer operation and wood construction.

The National Collegiate Landscape Competition provides landscape industry companies with unparalleled opportunities to meet and recruit next-generation landscape industry superstars in the largest green industry career fair.

NDSU attendees include horticulture majors Anne Gatzke, Connor Hagemeyer, Torie Jones, Sarah Kickert and Garrett Schumacher; landscape architecture majors Halley Bartlett, Kai Halverson, Matthew Keller, Tony Paul and Kaylee Pierce; business administration major Colin Schulte; and computer engineering major Kari Trembath.

The team from NDSU took 13th out of 62 collegiate teams nationally, establishing themselves as the highest ranking NDSU team that has attended the competition. Halley Bartlett, junior, took first place in the interior landscape design competition, and Anne Gatzke, senior, took second place in irrigation design.

Five NDSU students received scholarships from the group’s foundation. Connor Hagemeyer, senior, received the Husqvarna Professional Products Scholarship. Sarah Kickert, senior, received the Moore Landscape Scholarship. Torie Jones received the Akerman Family Scholarship. Kaylee Pierce, senior, received the Glowacki Family Scholarship. Kari Trembath, senior, received the Hunter Water Conservation/Irrigation Efficiency Scholarship.

The event was sponsored by the National Association of Landscape Professionals and was hosted by Alamance Community College in Graham, North Carolina.