Did you know Fox Valley Technical College is home to one of the region’s most hands‑on, nature‑powered learning environments? FVTC’s Horticulture program gives students the chance to study plant science in real greenhouses, explore careers that range from landscaping to greenhouse operations, and gain practical skills that local employers look for.
Recently, instructor Cat Franzke joined WHBY’s Focus on Careers to share how the program helps students grow their passion for plants into meaningful careers.
Tap the video to listen to the interview or scroll down to read the transcript.
Tenpas: Welcome back to Focus Fox Valley. If you’re dreaming of greener pastures, there’s a program at Fox Valley Tech that might be able to help you out with that. It’s time for our Focus on Careers with Fox Valley Technical College, an opportunity to highlight careers of promise through the college. And we do have Cat Franzke joining us here today, an instructor in that Horticulture program. Cat. Good afternoon. Thanks for being here today.
Franzke: Hello. Thank you so much for having me.
Tenpas: You were just saying you were teaching a hydroponics course earlier today.
Franzke: Yes. We have hydroponics in the spring semester, so when we can’t grow outside, at least we can grow inside.
Tenpas: How are those greenhouses feeling this time of year?
Franzke: They’re such a wonderful retreat. My interns actually set up a study section in one of our greenhouses. So they put out a tablecloth on one of the worktables, put a cozy chair out there and they go out and spend some time in the greenhouse just to thaw out.
Tenpas: It’s good for the soul. Yes, it is. Well, I am so excited to welcome you here today, Cat. And we usually begin by asking about your role at Fox Valley Tech and what brought you to it, your origin story, your journey to where you are today. And I know you’ve been teaching for several years at the horticulture program, so fill us in. How’d you get there?
Franzke: Wonderful. Well, I’ve been teaching full time for two years. Before that, I taught part time. And if we keep backing up. At one point, I went there as a student myself. So originally, I came to the Appleton area, went to Lawrence University, fell in love with this community, studied environmental science, then got the first office job I could out of college. And five years later I realized I just wanted to go play outside. So, at that point I took the community class at Fox Valley Tech with Jim Beard, and he did landscape design, and it met once a week in the evenings. It was very low key, and it really brought that passion to life. And I thought, yes, I definitely need to escape the office job.
Tenpas: Oh, I love that you recognize that you do have joy. You find joy in being out in the outdoors and okay, how can I align that with a career? I think a lot of students probably find themselves in that position with many different interesting fields, but I love that it was horticulture for you.
Franzke: Definitely, yeah. And so I ended up being a student at Fox Valley Tech, and I took every single horticulture class I could… I love learning. I’ll probably be a lifelong learner. And then I did all the entrepreneurship classes, and I worked in the industry doing landscape maintenance for about 14 years which was always fun. And there’s always something different every day. There is no getting bored. Your job is stress relief. So it was really great.
Tenpas: I love that. Well, let’s talk about the different programs that are all related to horticulture that Fox Valley Tech offers. Um, we talked about we’ve talked about the greenhouse already, but from the greenhouse to landscaping, like you mentioned, um, landscaping is kind of your subject matter, uh, as well. What are some of those different pathways for students?
Franzke: Well, those tend to be the two main focuses. We actually have two associate degrees, which are fairly new. And those will offer either a greenhouse operator trend. So a lot of people want to start up their own businesses, raise their own plants and sell them, or work for a larger greenhouse grow operation. And then the Landscape associate degree follows more of the go out and do the work in the yards, do maybe installation or get into designing. And then we also do our two-year technical degree. So if you don’t want to do any general eds, you just want to know what the core horticultural content is. That’s a two-year program where you take every single class with us, and then with all the way that works out, a lot of those kind of overlap. So most of our students who come for an associate degree can take maybe a handful more classes and end up with two of them. So they kind of double major in both.
Tenpas: I love that. And are you teaching a lot of… what’s native to Wisconsin in your teachings, or are you expanding and talking about horticulture across the country?
Franzke: We mostly look at what works well for Wisconsin, although we do also have an interior scaping class. So a lot of our greenhouse plants we will set up around campus inside. And that’s another one that we teach in the spring when we can’t be out as much.
Tenpas: Yeah. All right. Well, let’s talk about students. And I think I know the answer to this question, but I’m curious what your answer might be. Are they fresh out of high school or are they adult learners or a mix of both?
Franzke: All of the above. Yeah. We’ve got young students as well. We have some students that come from high school, so we do dual credit out at local schools. And then there’s a Start College Now program. So I’ve actually had high school seniors and juniors taking my class on campus with me. Then we get the people who were like me thinking, let’s do a career change. So a little bit older, um, some of them are actually working in the green industry already, and they just want to deepen their knowledge. And then we get the retirees who are like, you know what, I finished my first career, but now I want to play. And so they’ll come and just pick classes they think sound like fun.
Tenpas: I love that, I love that energy. We’re talking with Cat. She’s an instructor in the horticulture program at Fox Valley Tech. A lot of hands-on training with this program. And I think what our community might not realize is truly how hands on this program is not just on campus, but off campus as well. Can you talk about where your students are getting that hands on opportunity?
Franzke: Sure. Um, well, a lot of times what we’ll do is work on campus, like you mentioned, we’ll do. I let the students pick up a lot of their projects. So our fall maintenance class will go out and plant all the fall bulbs, and then our spring maintenance class will go out and evaluate all those bulbs on campus and say, well, where do we need some? And we kind of work those two together. And then to get off campus, we’ll go out and do tours of local industry places. So usually lounges will host us in the spring or in the fall for our fall maintenance class. And then right now I’m doing a greenhouse management class, and we’re going to go tour lots of different greenhouses around the area, try to get a feel for the different levels of operations, you know, the small ones versus the large-scale operations as well.
Tenpas: All right. We’ll pause here, Cat, but we’ve got more to talk about. So stick with us
Tenpas: You’re listening to Focus Fox Valley today. It’s our focus on careers with Fox Valley Technical College. Learning all about the horticulture program with Cat Franzke. Instructor in horticulture program. And Cat, it’s been fun talking about this program because I have a special little connection to it. So that’s always fun. But I do want to ask about how you’re preparing students to enter the workforce. How do you measure that success and what skill sets are you providing them with that lead them to help all of us amateur gardeners and growers go and pick those plants off the shelf or from the greenhouse.
Franzke: A lot of the stuff that we do, the hands-on learning, uh, really ranges from the beginner level into the more intricate stuff. So throughout our different classes, we work on the skill sets of, you know, if you go out and cut something off a tree, you can’t just glue it back on. So let’s make mistakes on campus. Let’s learn it here. So you’re not doing that in somebody’s yard. So a lot of the technical skills… They’re working with the equipment. We have an entire equipment operations class that meets on Fridays in both spring and fall semester. And we run the entire gamut from small handheld things up to doing the zero turn lawn mowers, the skid steers, mini excavators. So you get to play with all the toys that we have.
Tenpas: That might pique some interest for some folks out there. Um, and where are they getting hired? Where you mentioned a couple companies and feel free to mention, you know, where students are headed after they graduate?
Franzke: A lot of our students are in the local industry before they graduate. The industry is very lenient with letting their workers come and take classes and managing those class schedules. So I’d actually say a good portion of our students are already employed, and if they aren’t, they’re highly sought after by local industry, but either local greenhouses. We’ve got some in the landscape industry and quite a few work at garden centers because they can work around their class schedules or do weekend or retail on those.
Tenpas: All right. Who is best suited? Where do you see what type of qualities help a student thrive in this area?
Franzke: Well, it’s always good to like plants, and starting with a green thumb is great. But honestly, the biggest quality to have is just to be a hard worker and to not give up. Because plants are very forgiving. They will let you learn through them and they’ll bounce back and you’ll learn what not to do before you learn what to do. But always having that hardworking quality, just go get it and don’t hesitate for it.
Tenpas: Yeah, I mean, there can be some early mornings. Hours can be all over the place with this job, especially to avoid, you know, the heat of the day, all those types of things. So you need to be tough I think as well.
Franzke: Definitely.
Tenpas: Yeah. And I’m also curious about, you know, do you follow trends in landscaping. Do you see things come and go? Do you incorporate those into your classes? Or do students bring things to your attention that might be, you know, this this month in landscaping, anything like that?
Franzke: Most definitely. Actually, when I first came back to school, I really, really loved Water Gardens. And I remember telling Jim Beard, I want to design ponds. And he said, sorry, that phase has come and gone. Nobody really wants water gardens as much anymore. So you do see a lot of trends out there, and especially in the houseplant market, that is insane. People are spending so much money on the hottest new plants. So like even in plant breeding, there are many different trends to follow. So people are always looking for the newest, coolest plant to add to their perennial garden as well as in their house.
Tenpas: Well. And so many trends have also evolved in utilizing space for gardening too. I mean, I have my own little aero garden, but there are units that are, you know, triple the size of mine. Or you mentioned hydroponics and aquaponics. I mean, it’s a really evolving industry of growing in places that, you know, 20 years ago, people might have only dreamed about.
Franzke: Definitely. Yeah. The way that we use it and then the efficiency that we can do with it and the technology involved is also. So now we can get robotic mowers to come out and do that for you, so you can spend more time playing with the parts that you enjoy.
Tenpas: Yeah, I think some of my favorite places I’ve ever toured though are some of those. Aquaponics. Um, you know, fish farms combined with plants and all the science in it, it’s one of the coolest things you can ever see.
Franzke: Definitely.
Tenpas: Yeah. All right. What do you think you’re most proud of when it comes to your students? Pun intended here, but what about their growth? You know, what makes you proud?
Franzke: Uh, honestly, I tell everybody, and I’m always bragging about our students, but I feel like our program has the best students. Hand down, hands down. I mean, they come from all different walks of life. They all come into this giant blender, but they all usually like plants. Or they can find something that they share. But together, they have made the most inclusive learning environment that I’ve ever seen. It has a great community feel. So it’s either, um, supporting one another’s passion, their interest and showing each other and just the varied differences between the people we have, um, make it really fun.
Tenpas: Yeah. And with that in mind, do you see stigma in this work? Are there any misconceptions that you wish people maybe didn’t have a vibe towards when it came to landscaping?
Franzke: I think a lot of people pigeonhole or have a very narrow view of what the job entails. So it’s not just mowing a lawn and blowing off afterwards. There’s such a huge scope of where you can go in this industry, and that’s one of the things we teach in our intro class is exploring the different careers, and the students do some research, find places to interview with. One of them was looking at the horticultural job in a zoo. So you can go anywhere with horticulture.
Tenpas: Oh, I love it. How can our listeners find out more about the program? Cat.
Franzke: We have a website for that where they can pop on to Fox Valley Technical College and check that out. And always they could reach out, send an email and we’ll touch base
Tenpas: Agriculture, horticulture. Also natural resources are tossed in there. It’s a great program and I’m so glad we could hear about it today. Thank you, Cat.
Franzke: Thank you for having me. All right.
