Booker T. Washington Alumni Excels in Atlanta Botanical Garden Internship

The Atlanta Botanical Garden summer internship provided Baron Davis (Booker T. Washington class of 2025) with a unique opportunity to explore new interests, gain valuable work experience, and get paid before starting his freshman year at Morehouse College in the fall.

The Atlanta Botanical Garden’s summer internship program is a seven-week, paid program specifically for students at Title I high schools. Davis was one of 10 interns who worked with staff mentors at the garden, doing everything from basic tasks to hand-pollinating cacao trees to try to create a healthier hybrid.

“The really exciting thing about this internship is that it’s only for Title I students,” Atlanta Botanical Garden school programs coordinator Lillie Kline said. “It’s also a paid internship, and a unique opportunity to get hands-on experience working at a botanical garden alongside staff.”

Davis applied for the internship after meeting with the Atlanta Botanical Garden staff, who came to a STEM event at Booker T. Washington High School. While at the garden, Davis worked with the Plant Records team, the team that keeps inventory and keeps track of every single plant in the botanical garden.

“This internship was really intuitive,” he said. “I enjoyed meeting the people behind the scenes. You see all the flowers and the pretty statues covered in flowers, but you never really see the people who are involved in doing those things.”

During the internship, Atlanta Botanical Garden staff hosted workshops for the interns, provided resume building and college counseling sessions, invited guest speakers, and covered lunch and transportation for the interns.

In addition to his daily tasks and responsibilities, he also discovered a new interest in learning about bees and other pollinators that have an impact on the environment.

“One reason I joined the internship was to learn about flowers and plants and things to help my grandmother start her backyard,” he said. “She has this whole little thing going on, and she wants flowers back there. I’m thinking I can do this internship and learn about plants so I can help my grandmother out.”

Over the course of his internship, Davis was also charged with conducting research for his final project — build a discovery station with a presentation to engage park guests.

At his discovery station in the Fuqua Conservatory under the Chinese Summersweet tree surrounded by busy bees, visitors learned about the different types of bees, how their symbiotic relationships with plants promote a healthy environment, and how people can do their part in helping protect their environment.

“I wanted to bring that information forward because we’re losing a lot of bees and we’re losing a lot of land,” he said. “Bees in your garden means your area is healthy with nature in mind. You have a bunch of flowers helping a bunch of animals you can’t even see. Now the bees have somewhere to be, and you gave them back a little bit of their environment.”

Davis said he really enjoyed his experience with the Atlanta Botanical Garden summer internship. Not only did he gain work experience in a new field, but it also raised his awareness on environmental justice issues.

“The experience was really great,” Davis said. “This internship teaches responsibility, and it brings awareness to the importance of plants and that we can do this ourselves.”

During the school year, the Atlanta Botanical Garden offers free programming to any Title I school within 15 miles of the garden. They offer programs where schools can bring students to the garden to participate in a 30-minute lesson and explore the grounds. They also offer in-school field trips.

“We do outreach programs all year long, K-12, and they are completely free to Title I schools,” Kline said. “We’d love for APS schools to sign up.”