2021 Student Workers and Interns
Dr. Tanya Quist
Tanya M. Quist is an Associate Professor in the School of Plant Sciences. She also serves a role in Cooperative Extension as Director of the University of Arizona Campus Arboretum. Her responsibilities extend statewide in providing leadership in urban horticulture but include significant commitments on campus working with a wide range of people from UA Grounds Services and Campus Planning to mentoring student interns.
Hallie Letsinger
Bachelor of Architecture, College of Architecture, Planning & Landscape Arch | University of Arizona Class of 2022
Project: Hallie is currently pursuing her undergraduate degree in architecture. While in school, she has found a growing passion for digital fabrication, where technology and design intersect. Hallie is adding to her foundation of knowledge in digital fabrication by creating and documenting a process for manufacturing the Arboretum’s botanical signage. The procedure will be used by future students to create QR coded botanical signs that are seen around trees on campus. The signs will allow for an interactive learning experience for anyone with a smartphone.
Iza Barrandey
B.S. Sustainable Plant Systems, Urban Horticulture Emphasis, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Class of 2022
Project: Iza has responsibility for all horticultural and collections related arboretum work. This includes tending to plants in the desert plant conservatory, including plant propagation, pest management, transplanting, watering and nutritional needs. She also provides both leadership and support to the UA Grounds Services and the Campus Arboretum by planting trees and other plants on the main campus grounds, providing supplemental irrigation for newly transplanted trees, monitoring and reporting plant health needs, as well as groundtruthing plant accessions for the GIS inventory, installing and maintaining botanical signage, and collecting and shipping plant samples to researchers upon request.
Natasha Meehlieb
B.S. Plant Sciences, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Class of 2022
Project: Natasha has responsibility for creation of a plant walk that complements an interdisciplinary exhibit between the Center for Creative Photography (CCP) and the Laboratory of Tree Ring Research (LTRR) to highlight the intersection of art and science. In her work she must apply her knowledge of plant sciences to her professional experience as a photographer to identify plants and campus locations connecting the CCP and LTRR facilities to lead tour participants across campus through an experience of art-science intersections. The tour will be presented in a variety of formats (via mobile apps, websites, printable booklets) and available through the Campus Arboretum and CCP continuously after its completion in 2021.
Jamie Rike
B. S. Biosystems Engineering, College of Engineering, and College of Agricutlure and Life Sciences, Class of 2021
Project: Jamie is responsible for expanding the boundaries of the main campus arboretum by mapping and describing woody plants growing in the Dunbar Spring neighborhood. She will create web content that guides residents and visitors in identifying, cultivating (within a passive water harvesting system), and using these woody plants in the neighborhood. The information she compiles will be accessible through QR-coded interpretive signage that she will create and install throughout the neighborhood. Addionally, she will create a self-guided mobile tour of the neighborhood that will guide residents and visitors to the plants and to the educational content accessible through the QR-coded signage.
William Lampman
B.S. Plant Sciences, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Class of 2022
B.S. Natural Resources, Wildlife Conservation Emphasis, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Class of 2022
Project: William is responsible for leading a team of students in establishing a new desert plant conservatory. The greenhouse features the weirdest and most inspiring plants from around the world with the goal of inspiring the campus and global communities to see and appreciate the incredible adaptations of plants for hot, dry climates. He is responsible for curating and building the plant collection, transplanting and caring for the plants, reseraching species descriptions, photographing, and creating educational content for the collection website to extend the benefits of this resource globally.
