(March 21, 2002) – Alamance Community College’s Horticulture Technology students excelled at last week’s 46th National Collegiate Landscape Competition as the team finished 10th among 43 colleges and universities from across the U.S.
Held on the NC State University campus March 16-19, ACC’s 16 students matched their horticulture and landscaping skills in contests against 510 competing students. Individual students and teams placed high in the competitions to accumulate scores that pushed ACC into the upper echelons of the competition.
Among ACC’s 42 competitors were Colorado State University, Auburn University, Brigham Young University, Michigan State University, NC State, and approximately 12 community colleges.
This was the 19th consecutive year that ACC’s Horticulture department had attended this national event, including virtual events due to Covid the past two years. The annual event provides students opportunities to spend a day in workshops led by industry professionals, attend a career fair featuring more than 50 top landscape companies from across the U.S., and pit their horticulture skills in numerous competitions.
“Our students put in hours of preparation time and worked diligently at their competitions. They competed against others with huge teams and some from large four-year universities, and they still came out on top,” said Dr. Elizabeth Riley, Department Head of Horticulture Technology at ACC, who accompanied the team to the event.
Five ACC students placed high overall in individual scoring:
ACC students and teams who placed in the top 10:
Said ACC’s Riley: “I am so proud of our students in more ways than I can express. The students are the reason we are here and come into work every day, and I am glad they had their chance to show off their skills nationally.”