Clubs and Volunteering

Student Clubs

here is a student organization for almost any cause, topic or activity you can imagine. The UGA Involvement Network maintains a list of active student organizations. The UGA Horticulture Department sponsors three clubs specific to horticulture.

Horticulture Club

The Horticulture Club is a very active club that typically meets the first and third Wednesday of each month throughout the school year. The club grows plants for a fall and spring plant sale. While participating in these sales students gain growing, marketing, and sales skills. The plant sale and a Valentine flower sale raise money to support scholarships and club trips including competing in the NALP National Student Landscape Competition (NALP Career Days). Each fall and spring, the club travels to gardens, nurseries and parks across the country. Recent four-day trips have been to the Pacific Northwest, San Francisco, and Philadelphia. Students from horticulture, landscape architecture and related disciplines are invited to join.

UGArden Club

The UGArden Club supports the efforts of UGArden, a student community farm. They meet regularly to help with projects at the farm. They also go on camping trips, help out at local schools and sponsor a spring music festival at UGArden. The UGArden Club is open to any student from any major on campus.

PAX

Pi Alpha Xi is a national horticulture honors society that was formed in 1923 at Cornell University. Originally, Pi Alpha Xi was for floriculture and ornamental horticulture; however, today it embraces all horticultural disciplines and has grown to 40 chapters with approximately 14,000 members. Chapters are located in the United States at four-year institutions with programs in horticulture. The organization was established to foster good fellowship among students, educators and professional horticulturists, and the mission of Pi Alpha Xi is to promote scholarship, fellowship, professional leadership, and the enrichment of human life through plants.
The Tau chapter of Pi Alpha Xi, founded in 1975, seeks to recognize academically high achieving students that demonstrate an interest in the field of horticulture at the University of Georgia. Candidates for admittance into the Tau chapter of Pi Alpha Xi should show promise for continued involvement in the field, as well as high performance in terms of completed coursework. Academic requirements include having a 3.0 GPA on the 4.0 scale, as well as having completed 60 hours of coursework. A one-time membership fee provides lifelong membership.

Volunteering

Horticulture students find many opportunities to learn and serve in the local Athens community. UGArden, a student community farm offers horticulture students a chance to volunteer during work sessions offered year round. This is a great way to get your hands dirty, learn how to grow fruots, vegetables and medicinal herbs, and gain valuable work experience. Many student volunteers go on to do a UGArden internship, or work part-time on the farm. Students can find out about and register to volunteer on the Engage UGA website. Along with the UGA Office of Service Learning, the Horticulture Department sponsors K-12 garden programing at local schools, through the Grow it, Know it program. Horticulture students can volunteer to help care for a school garden by visiting the Grow it, Know it volunteer site.