Late Nights to Early Mornings

This past weekend, the musical theater students threw the first party of the year, which I was invited to, and I had a blast. My girlfriend was in town, too, so she got to go with me, and my roommate, who is a musical theater major. The theme of the party was bikers and surfers, and since the junior class got surfers, I put on my swim trunks. My girlfriend and I both wore Hawaiian shirts, and we were on our way.

The party was a lot of fun, and after it ended, we walked to John & Toni’s to sing some karaoke and attempt to play pool. After spending some time there, we decided we were hungry, so we walked to Taco Bell. The walk and getting our food seemed to take forever, but we eventually got our food, said our goodbyes and headed back to our apartments. When my roommate, my girlfriend and I got back to our apartment, we ate our food while watching “Rick and Morty.” By the time we finally decided to go to bed, it was past 4 a.m.!

On Wednesday, my Social Media Strategies and Campaigns class left campus at 6:30 a.m. for an academic field trip to Davey Tree Expert Co. Our class will be helping the company with some of its social media throughout the semester, and Sandra Reid, the executive communicator, wanted us to experience Davey Tree before we got started.

We arrived at the SEED (Science, Employee Education and Development) Campus, where Sandra gave us a tour of the fairly new building. The inside was really nice, but what stood out to me most was how connected the company was to its history. There was a centerpiece barn connected to their building where they hold large meetings. The wood pillars used in building the barn came from a historic 1890s barn that originally stood on the property Davey Tree acquired in Kent, Ohio. The same wood was also used for tables and stairs throughout the building.

There were pictures of founder John Davey and the original Davey Tree team throughout the building. His books were also displayed in a small library, and there were oil paintings of Davey Tree clients’ estates that dated back more than 100 years. It was interesting to see how much history the company had preserved and incorporated into its newer building.

After the inside tour, we went outside to explore the campus. We got to climb up to a treehouse-like structure that was connected to other trees by bridges. It's hard to describe, but it was beautiful and a lot of fun. We also took a ride around the entire SEED Campus, where we got to see the land and hear more about Davey Tree’s history. A lot of the land used to be, and some of it still is, a golf course. We also got to see some of the drones the company uses for herbicide spraying, data collection and other work.

We eventually went back to the conference room to discuss what Davey Tree wanted us to work on throughout the semester. We threw ideas back and forth, but the biggest topic seemed to be sustainability. We are not exactly sure what project we will start with, but after the trip, we have a much better understanding of Davey Tree, what it does and what the company is about.

Overall, this was a really cool experience. From exploring the beautiful campus to connecting with people who are doing real work in an industry related to what we are studying, the trip gave me a better idea of what some of my future career options could look like!

Comments

  1. Matthew CookSeptember 9, 2026 at 10:33 PM

    We were happy to have you over for the party! It was so much fun getting to have everyone together and seeing each other after a summer off. The SEED campus was such a cool experience to learn about and see in person. I agree that we left Davey with a much better understanding of what they do and how to better approach the project.

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