{"id":165628,"date":"2026-05-06T09:02:50","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T13:02:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=165628"},"modified":"2026-05-06T10:16:42","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T14:16:42","slug":"sustained-student-effort-brings-pollinator-garden-to-campus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2026\/05\/06\/sustained-student-effort-brings-pollinator-garden-to-campus\/","title":{"rendered":"Sustained student effort brings pollinator garden to campus"},"content":{"rendered":"

Three years ago, a group of earth and environmental sciences<\/a> students at Wright State University planted native wildflower seeds in starter trays with care, intention and optimism.<\/p>\n

Only grass sprouted.<\/p>\n

That wasn\u2019t the beginning of the SEES garden they hoped for, but they persisted.<\/p>\n

On April 22, 2026, the students of SEES \u2014 Students for Earth and Environmental Sustainability \u2014 welcomed a new pollinator garden to campus. It\u2019s populated with native flowers, a petrified log and rock path, a few Adirondack chairs for comfortable studying, and an oak tree fully invested in providing future shade.<\/p>\n

The site is between the Russ Engineering Center and the Student Union, and it was formerly home to a community vegetable garden. But the wooden beds had rotted and the brackets rusted. It became, in the diplomatic phrasing of faculty advisor Stacey Hundley, Ph.D., \u201ca campus eyesore.\u201d However, the students in SEES saw potential. They hauled everything away and began making plans.<\/p>\n

Then the formal approval process began.<\/p>\n

\u201cLots of patience,\u201d was one thing that Kenny Reinhard \u201926, president of SEES, said he\u2019d learned during the three-year process as he was spreading river rock for the walkway as the garden neared completion. The graduating senior earth and environmental science major might have also said persistence.<\/p>\n

Nobody quit, and that matters. Because showing up and doing the hard work at Wright State aren\u2019t abstracts \u2014 they\u2019re a weekday. Raiders get things done.<\/p>\n

Members donated seeds from their own yards, and they donated their talent. Anna Quick \u201925, used the GIS certificate she earned at Wright State to map and design the entire garden layout \u2014 applied learning that was literally planted in the ground. And when J.T. Bukiewicz from the grounds staff was able to get involved during Spring Semester, the whole thing sprang forward fast.<\/p>\n

On Earth Day 2026, they cut the ribbon.<\/p>\n

The space is seeded with drought-resistant plants \u2014 milkweed, coneflower, decorative grasses \u2014 all designed to draw in butterflies and bees while giving students a reason to sit and study outside for a while. A fossil exchange box is coming too.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll be adding fossils that we collected from Oakes Quarry Park to add a geologic feature to the garden,\u201d said Reinhard, noting that one of the garden\u2019s sponsors is the American Institute for Professional Geologists.<\/p>\n

He explained that it\u2019s kind of like a little free library that you see in people\u2019s yards. And the large section of petrified wood was moved from behind Brehm Hall to be a showcase in the space.<\/p>\n

For the most part, the students took the challenges in stride.<\/p>\n

\u201cEarth Day is every day,\u201d said Gabrielle Crossman \u201926, a graduating senior and SEES officer. \u201cSo even if something is destroyed, we just rebuild it again. That\u2019s kind of the philosophy of environmentalism.\u201d<\/p>\n

A lot of the students who started this project have graduated. And this garden is their gift back to current and future Raiders. It\u2019s grounded in belonging, and it\u2019s filled with purpose and hope for a shared future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three years ago, a group of earth and environmental sciences students at Wright State University planted native wildflower seeds in starter trays with care, intention and optimism. Only grass sprouted. That wasn\u2019t the beginning of the SEES garden they hoped … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":165632,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[729,2037,2105,2025,2066,725,727,715,746,720],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-165628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-around-campus","category-arts-scene","category-campus-recreation","category-community-service","category-earth-environmental-sciences","category-home-news-sidebar","category-homepage-photos-and-video","category-news","category-science-mathematics","category-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165628"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165628\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":165655,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165628\/revisions\/165655"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}