Spring 2017
​Board of Regents Dinner
February 8, 2017
The Board of Regents Dinner was an event being held in the Bethancourt Ballroom in the Memorial Student Center. It was for the Texas A&M Board of Regents members who were receiving medals for their work with the University.
​
I contributed to the success of this event by assisting Mr. Mckinley, Sr. Floral Design Lecturer, deliver the arrangements and set them up on the tables as well as assisting with the setup of the stage,which was used as a backdrop for the Board of Regents members getting their medals. I did a quality check of the arrangements before setting them on the tables, if there was something wrong with the arrangement I would fix it before setting it on the table. Every event that I assist Mr. Mckinley with I learn a new aspect of what it is like to have to work with clients. For this event we had to wait around on the client for about 30 minutes to make sure that everything was up to her standards. Even though we had to wait so long to get the approval the client said that the designs exceeded her expectations.
TIAS Gala Design
February 22, 2017
Texas A&M Student American Institute of Floral Design had the opportunity to design the arrangements for the TIAS Gala. Doing these events allows members of SAIFD to develop their floral design skills as well as raise money for the club.
​
I helped create around 15 of the 50 centerpieces needed for this event. There were six different designs being made for centerpieces and bistro tables. Some of the arrangements for this event were sheltered designs, which means that the tulips for example would have to go through the wooden shelter at the top. This kind of design is time consuming because if the tulip stems were too short we would have to adjust the shelter to make it short enough for the tulips. Assisting in making these designs taught me first of all how difficult shelter designs are to make, but it is worth it in the end because the finished product looks so cool.
Horticulture Career Fair
February 22, 2017
The Horticulture Career Fair is a networking event held in February every year for Horticulture majors and minors trying to find an internship or career in their prospective horticulture field. The career fair has breakfast for the companies as well as an opportunity for horticulture students to take a company to lunch.
​
For this event I helped with many aspects. I setup the tables and chairs for the companies coming. After that was done I assisted the advisors in getting the food downstairs to the room that the breakfast platters for the companies would be in. Once that was done I went back upstairs to where the luncheon would be and setup the tables with tablecloths and chairs. Once everything was setup I assisted with working the popcorn machine. Volunteering at this event taught me how much work goes into planning and setting up events, even if you think it's a pretty small and simple event.
TIAS Gala
February 24, 2017
The TIAS Gala was an event that had a sitdown dinner, award ceremony, and dance. The purpose of the event was to induct the new faculty fellows into the Hagler Institute for Advanced Study at Texas A&M University.
​
Delivering arrangements is always an interesting time, especially at the MSC because you get to see what goes on behind the scenes. This delivery trip involved us needing a big cargo van and two SUV's because of how many arrangements and plants we had to transport over to the MSC. The actual setup of the event went very smoothly. It was the strike of the event that made it tricky. Mr. Mckinley had taken some plants over to the MSC before we took all the rest of the arrangements and plants, so when we were trying to take things back to the Horticulture building after the event we had to do a lot of problem solving in order to make everything fit. That situation taught me to always make sure you have enough cars to transport your plants and arrangements because we almost had to leave some of the plants behind.