Putting Down Roots: Hoehaver Finds Academic and Professional Success at Auburn

By: Lesley Bebeau, Spring Semester Intern

Jane Hoehaver has a long list of accomplishments. She is the first female superintendent of an Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station (AAES) research unit, she's a recent summa cum laude graduate of Auburn's College of Agriculture, and she's the proud mother of a 10-year-old.

Hoehaver graduated in December 2004 in horticulture and now she is getting the chance to give back to Auburn University AND stay in Auburn in her new job as superintendent of the Plant Science Research Center (PSRC), an AAES research facility on the Auburn campus.

"I didn't want to leave (Auburn)," Hoehaver says. "I had told Assistant Dean (Bill) Alverson and Associate Dean (Bill) Hardy that I would be the one that they had to push across the stage. It's amazing to have the opportunity to stay and still be a part of the whole thing."

An Illinois native, her horticulture education began when she enrolled at an Illinois college that had just launched a new horticulture program. She soon landed a job as the garden center manager at a local Lowe's, where she met a man who delivered vegetables from Alabama-based Bonnie Plant Farm. He was constantly telling her that Auburn University was the best horticulture school in the world, and that she would be a great plant grower.

In 2000, Hoehaver moved to Alabama to work for Bonnie Plant Farm in Union Springs. Within a year she was managing close to 50 greenhouses. Meanwhile, she also gained Alabama residency and enrolled at Auburn full time in the summer and fall semesters. She quickly decided that the man who delivered vegetables was right-that she was at the best horticulture school around.

Today, as superintendent of the PSRC, Hoehaver maintains the entire building and its greenhouses. All operational things-cleaning, watering, repairing, fert-ilizing, fencing, maintenance on equipment and keeping supplies stocked-fall under her job description, but it's not too big a job for her. She says when she is really driven to do something she does it, and she thinks this is one of the reasons she received the job offer. Hoehaver believes that if she had not proved herself in class, her professors likely wouldn't have thought highly enough of her to tell her about the job opening.

"I have a potential to advance myself to learn more, do research, publish papers and find out what's going on in the industry."

In addition to her responsibilities at the PSRC, Hoehaver has ideas for improving the facility. She hopes to bring in more horticulture students and projects, since most of the current student workers are not from the horticulture department.

"I put myself through a lot to get here, but I have a lot that I want to go through to stay here and make this place great," Hoehaver says.

The single mom credits her son, Charley, for his help in her education. From the time he was 8, when summers rolled around, Charley attended class with his mom. He would sit in classes for four hours at a time, playing his Game Boy and having an occasional snack. He became friends with her classmates and even answered professors' questions.

"I don't know many children his age who wouldn't whine and complain about sitting in a classroom during the summer when he should be being a kid," Hoehaver says.

After getting to meet Auburn football players Carnell Williams and Derrick Graves, he decided he wanted to attend Auburn University one day, too.

Hoehaver, an outstanding Auburn student who was inducted into the Phi Kappa Phi honor society and Gamma Sigma Delta agricultural honor society and joined Alpha Zeta agricultural fraternity, is definitely proud to come from Auburn's College of Agriculture.

"It's family, it's close and I think once you leave here, you might be gone, but you're never gone totally," she says. "You're still going to be affiliated with the college and I think that's great."

"Hard work is my motto," she says. "I really believe that whatever you want, if you work hard enough for it-even if you're not the richest, the prettiest or the smartest-if you try the hardest, you're going to get where you want to go."

Hoehaver's favorite quote, "Gardener's know the best dirt," describes her perfectly. She finds herself still doing work-related duties during her free time at home. She says the landscape people are not up to her standards in her apartment complex, and she finds herself trimming the shrubs and fixing her flower boxes for each season. She even took part in a contest for best-decorated patio this past December.

"When I find a house that I can rent, you can bet the first thing that I'll do is the yard," she says. "That's kind of the way that I unwind. I just like to be out in the quiet, in the dirt with the weeds and flowers and doing my thing."

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