Looking back to my high school years, I realize that although I had passion, I was not the strongest student and lacked direction upon graduation. I was lucky enough to see a job ad for a small company as I started my professional career. The company was Olde Colonial Tree and Landscape, and the owner was Jay Ippolito.

The Essex Agricultural arboriculture students and teachers.

Ippolito was a great mentor and had a great influence on me. He taught me a trade I have always loved, and he made me a better person. Because I am so grateful for that experience, I spend a lot of time working with high school and college students trying to help them. Most of these students are exceptional, but many of them are in need of a work and industry mentor.

There are so many exceptional young students at agricultural and vocational high schools seeking opportunities. I know many people and companies spend a great deal of time and money helping schools. However, I want to encourage more of you to get involved.

Helping them help you
Teachers at these technical schools are doing incredible work creating interesting curricula and events to encourage their students to become our future employees. Nicole Forsyth has developed an amazing Green Industry Day at Norfolk Aggie in Walpole, Massachusetts. South Shore Tech in Hanover, Mass., and Bristol Aggie in Dighton, Mass., host reverse career fairs.

A reverse career fair is an event in which, rather than the companies being at tables presenting themselves, each student presents a PowerPoint on their accomplishments. Essex Aggie in Danvers, Mass., has a job fair where their students must engage several vendors, even if they’re not in their major.

I am very lucky that Dan Mayer, owner of Mayer Tree Service, the company I work for, feels the same way I do and always encourages me to be more involved. We have excellent relationships with a lot of these amazing teachers and schools. It’s a pleasure to meet so many of these young students who are looking for work. The bad news is, more often than not, when I attend these wonderful events, there are more students than companies. I realize not every company can or wants to hire kids under 18, but you can participate.

Removing an old black oak too badly damaged to save. BPhotos courtesy of David Anderson.

Workforce development
We always talk about looking for good employees, and this is another option. If you work at a company that cannot hire younger people for insurance reasons, please find other ways to help and engage these students. You can still go to the school events, which are usually in the winter and usually run only a couple of hours. If you are a smaller company that has more leeway with this, it can be an opportunity to bring someone on board and mold them to your culture.

If you don’t have the time to go to the school or be on an advisory board, host an open house at your shop and invite your local school, or invite students to visit a work site for exposure and learning opportunities. Remember, these students will be adults soon – do not pass up opportunities to recruit good people for the future.

Please reach out to your local agriculture and vocational schools to see how you can help them. If you are already doing this, thank you. If you are not, please find some time to help. Best-case scenario, you create a mutually beneficial relationship. At a minimum, you are giving back to your community and helping to develop our future workforce. It is something industry can and should do more often.

Conclusion
Mayer Tree Service recently had a group of Essex Aggie students visit us while two of our crews were working at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Mass., which is also a botanical garden. It was a great day, because the students got to visit a historic botanical garden and watch our crews remove some dangerous trees in some very difficult locations. Our team did an amazing job, making it look easy. We are honored to work at Mount Auburn Cemetery, even on a cold winter day. It is a beautiful and historic place.

We also are very fortunate to have a strong working relationship with Essex Aggie, especially with the arboriculture teachers. These teachers do an excellent job training their students to become good arborists, but more important, molding them to become good people. Through this relationship, we have hired several great interns and full-time members of our team.

David M. Anderson, CTSP and Massachusetts certified arborist, is a manager with Mayer Tree Service Inc., a 33-year TCIA member company based in Essex, Mass. He also is a member of the TCI Magazine Editorial Advisory Committee.