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The TurfZone Podcast: Dr. Becky Bowling on Industry Recruiting and UT’s First Beacon Event
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Julie Holt (00:00.204)
Welcome to the turf zone. In this relaunch episode, we’re talking to Dr. Becky Bowling, assistant professor and extension specialist in turf grass science and management at the University of Tennessee. Dr. Bowling, thank you so much for joining me today. Thank you for having me, Julie. It’s good to be here with you. This is a conversation I’ve been looking forward to for quite a while. Not too long ago, I started hearing about a new event at the University of Tennessee and
Just to lay some groundwork as a Turfgrass Association Management Magazine Editor, see events come across my desk left and right, and we have seen so many field days and so many different opportunities for Turfgrass managers to have some social time and some education time. This one caught my attention. So I wanted to talk to you about it because you and I have been working together to promote it to Tennessee Turfgrass professionals.
So would you mind introducing that event and telling me a little bit about it? Absolutely. Yeah. So, you know, shortly after I started a little over a year ago, our team had a conversation about what an in -person event was going to look like. This will be our first real major event that we’ve had since COVID that’s open to the entire Turfgrass public. And I think…
you know, what we really wanted to try to do is have something that was unique and that hit on a few core things. Like we really wanted to get into a couple of things, which was how do we support really good networking and connection with members of our industry that want to engage at a higher level with our students that want to engage in a higher level with our research program? And similarly, how can we kind of use that to address a growing workforce and labor shortage?
issue across the industry and how can we also use that to provide a unique opportunity for our students. So really wanting to develop an event that was going to be novel.
Julie Holt (02:01.246)
maybe a little bit different and really focused on, I would say just a richer experience and deeper level of engagement. And so we came up with Beacon and the name Beacon, which I’ve gotten a lot of questions about, came from one of our PhD students, Ben Pritchard, who was looking at the UT alma mater and there’s a line in there, know, hallowed hill in Tennessee, like Beacon shining bright.
That’s right. On a hallowed hill in Tennessee, like Beacon Shining Bright. And I think we all just thought that that was really neat. Kind of the idea that our UT TERF program could kind of be this beacon on the hill, bring a lot of folks from our industry together. And so we decided that we would have this be a two -day event. The first day is going to be really kind of like a career fair. That’s the easiest way to describe it. But our goal is that we want to bring together students and we want to bring together members of the industry that
have open positions or soon to be open positions, whether those are jobs or internships. And we really wanted to extend it beyond our UT turf grass program. We have a phenomenal program with great undergraduates, but there’s a lot of other really good programs in the region, including several at some smaller colleges and universities. And so we’ve extended invitations to at least seven other smaller schools to try to encourage them to bring students to this event. And so we’re really looking forward to seeing.
who we might get from some of those other programs. And the way that we’ll have it set up is that our prospective employers can purchase space in where we’ve rented out a ballroom at the Crowne Plaza and they can set up tables. And we also have have it to where they can set up kind of like a front lawn, quote unquote, where they can set up games and other interactive activities to engage those students.
And we’re really hoping that they can just have some really productive discussions. And we also intend for there to be a reception at the end of that on that first day where we play trivia and have some drinks and hors d ‘oeuvres and everybody just gets an opportunity to really get to know one another. And to go with that, we also intend to set up a digital space. So it’ll be effectively a website where we’ll showcase some of these opportunities in advance. So students will get to see before they come what some of those opportunities are going to look like that they’ll get to talk to.
Julie Holt (04:15.722)
employers or prospective employers about. So that’s the first day. And then the second day, that’s where we’ll have folks out to our research farm. It won’t be quite like a traditional field day. What we’ve really decided to do are these kind of themed tours. So we’ll have golf -centric tour, where Dr. Brosnan, Dr. Horvath, Dr. Strachan, myself, we’ll talk about all things golf -related.
And then we’ll have a more sports turf -centric tour. So that’s where a lot of folks will be able to hear about the World Cup research that’s ongoing here at UT, as well as several other things that Dr. Sorakhin’s program in particular is very involved in, in the sports turf world. And then we’ll kind of wrap up that day. We’ve asked our specialty crops specialist here, Dr. Mitchell Richmond, to talk a little bit about his hops research program.
And really that’s just going to be a great excuse to talk about our relationship or UT’s relationship with Yee -Haw Brewing and have a little, have a little beer maybe before the event closes out. And that weekend works out really well. We’ll have Ag Day here on the UT campus on Saturday for alumni that want to engage with the Ag school. And then there’ll be a football game that night if folks want to stay in Tailgate and do football. Wow. Okay. You’ve covered the entire gamut.
I’ve got to take it a day at a time and ask the idea of bringing employers and potential employees together. imagine that the employers are more the buyers market if we’re kind of comparative to real estate terms, but they’re the ones who are really eager to find good candidates for those positions. they involved in the idea process of this event?
I would say yes to an extent. So I think that our motivation to try to bring employers and students together came from just listening to folks at our TTA board meetings, at our annual conference, and hearing more and more about some of the difficulties that a lot of our turf grass managers are having in finding potential employees. And so in that sense, yes. And then we did have a couple of conversations with a few of our alumni that are really involved in the industry to get
Julie Holt (06:32.002)
get some of their input as well on what that might look like. And so, yes, I would say we did have some, engagement with, those folks as we kind of thought through all of that. So I’m thinking of a lot of, don’t, I don’t want to say, say old school, but, but traditional ways of finding staff for Turkress management, whether I mean, it’s golf course industry right down to, to link here. I still see some of these like job boards.
line association websites. And I see some of those jobs listed for a long, long time. Are those, are those employers open -minded to a new format of looking for staff? Are they, are they coming? Are they involved? Are they like, yeah, we’re going to maybe add to the, the old school way we’ve, we’ve pitched these jobs.
That’s a great question. You know, I think it’s too early for us to say. I think this is our first time doing this event here. Certainly so far, the feedback that we’ve gotten is a lot of excitement. You know, I think historically in the past, this is really what a lot of field days were about. It was really about trying to facilitate that rich engagement and trying to get our students connected with those in the industry. And so we’re kind of coming back to that. think, you know, not that we’ve had a complete departure from that, but field days have in many
places have become just so big and so focused on pesticide points and education, trying to get so many things kind of crammed into that day. And so this will be a little, a little different. And I think it’ll just be a learning year for everybody to see how, that goes and how people feel about it. You know, what I can certainly say is we have a generation now that’s coming out of these programs that may look for jobs and think about jobs differently.
You know, there’s research that’s been done kind of looking at what is appealing to some of these younger prospective employees going out into the job market. And I think what they’re looking for is a little bit different. And because it’s so competitive and there’s so many opportunities, I think really trying to create opportunities for one -on -one engagement where you can really get to know a student and that student can get to know you is going to make a lot of difference in terms of what’s appealing.
Julie Holt (08:53.528)
to some of these students, whether they’re looking for internships or looking for, you know, to start their career. Right. I have been working with younger employees and I sometimes feel really lost. Like, how do I entice younger generations to want to work and how do I adjust my attitude about the expectation of how they work? And I love that you are.
fostering a conversation before that starts in a way that they can get to know each other and figure out if they can bridge that gap of how we have worked and how they want to work. Do you have a lot of current students that plan to attend, like are your turf grass students right now all in?
Yeah, I think we have several students here that are really excited. We have a very, we have a good sized, very tight knit program. And you know, Dr. Sorokin and Horvath, who are the primary faculty that engage with our students have really good working relationships with them. And my intention too, is that we were going to promote this pretty heavily in the college, especially once we once the fall semester kicks off and we’re back in August, because
We have lot of other departments in our college where I think we have students that maybe don’t know what’s possible in the turf world. have students in agricultural leadership and education and communication. We have students that are in agricultural economics, students that are in adjacent fields that may love a career in turf. And I think too, the other thing we’ve heard from folks is we have several companies that have other positions that aren’t just turf management positions that they’re struggling to fill.
or hoping to get good candidates to look at. And so, yes, we have turf students here that are looking forward to it, that will be there. I’m hopeful that we have a lot of other students from the college as well and that we get some good diversity there. Excellent. Okay, let’s talk after Beacon. I know that you’ve now had a full year to absorb the Go Big Orange culture.
Julie Holt (11:03.598)
I think this is a really exciting time to join the UT family because we’re doing well on multiple sports fronts and there’s just a lot of excitement around that and we had a lot of activity here even just on the Ag campus but across the entire campus with new construction, new facilities, updated facilities and so you can kind of feel that excitement in the air and that positive momentum that this is a university that’s on the rise.
and that’s very successful and is continuing to move that way. So what’s next? What’s big in the future of the turfgrass science program at UT? Well, once we live through the pioneering beacon event, of course. There’s just so many things that are going on with our program right now as a whole. I mean, I would say, of course, there’s a lot of anticipation and excitement around the FIFA World Cup research that’s ongoing here.
As we get closer to 2025, 2026, and we have club world cup and then the big show, you know, there’s a lot of anticipation building up around that. And a lot of energy from our program, Dr. Srockin’s team in particular, going into preparing for that. In addition to that, you know, our program is very fortunate that we have great, great relationships across the industry. And we’ve got some neat research. Dr. Brosnan has got a lot going on right now in the golf sector and similar with Dr. Horvath. So there’s.
There’s a lot happening. I think as a team, we’ll have a retreat here in the next couple of years where we will be able to work together and really discuss kind of what does our vision look like going forward as a group. And so I’m excited for that. And then personally, for my own research, there’s a couple of big things that I’m trying to focus on right now. So the first is looking at doing some research over the winter months this coming year.
really focused more on golf courses, looking at wedding agent program development to try to protect sensitive areas from winter injury. We’ve had a lot of that in Tennessee over the last couple of years. And then going into 2025, a big focal point of my program is going to be to develop an extension program around community turf. So recognizing that we have many turf grass facilities across the state of Tennessee that are
Julie Holt (13:23.65)
public park spaces, school grounds, cemeteries, areas that can really be thought of as community assets and valued green spaces and really trying to think about how can we streamline education and professional support and to the folks that are managing those spaces. That’s a great topic. I hear that.
in and around the schools in my community. We often see our assistant principals mowing the middle school football field and you know we have a lot a lot of that space where volunteers want to do a good job and they want to have a nice safe playing surface or a place that the community can enjoy an outdoor movie night. I feel like most of them don’t know where to start and
I think that’s a great, great opportunity for extension. I see it out of my office window right this moment with a little community green space. So that’s amazing. I’ll look forward to seeing what comes from that. Yeah, I’m excited. And it gives us a really good opportunity to to kind of leverage our really extensive network of county extension offices. know, we UT has a county office in every one of our 95 counties. And so working with those agents and kind of
thinking about what we can do at a local level to support those community turf spaces. I’m excited about it. Have you had an opportunity to visit many of those 95 counties just yet? You know, somebody just asked me this question yesterday. I think that I’ve been to between 35 and 40 counties so far since I started here at UT. That’s impressive. And traveling the state of Tennessee is, you know, they’re not all day trips. They’re just not. I, and I really, I
When I started here, somebody, I didn’t know a whole lot about the state of Tennessee and somebody shared with me about the three regions and how distinct they are and they all have their own unique identity. And it’s been really neat as I’ve traveled to really see that play out in a very true way. And I’ve been able to form my own unique kind of relationships with each region. I’ve, I’ve got, you know.
Julie Holt (15:29.11)
restaurants I love in each region, places I like to stop and stay in each region. And so it’s been really cool, you know, and you’re right. Like when I go out to West Tennessee, that’s usually a two or three day trip with a hotel and all of that. West Tennessee is where we have the majority of our sod production in the state, know, a very strong presence of sod production. So that’s when I go out there, I get to spend a lot of time with our sod producers, which is actually really cool. It’s one of my favorite.
Christina Curdy is known for his West Tennessee hospitality. He’s a great tour guide and host over there in Rutherford and Gibson County. Yeah, I just really enjoy that. I enjoy going out there and visiting with a lot of those folks. It is very different, than middle and East. They are each very unique for each other. for sure. Is there anything else going on kind of related to that industry building and labor?
challenges. Sure. So a couple of different things that we could add to that. The first is I actually just spent before you and I got on here today, probably about an hour and a half, I have the honor of chairing our TTA education committee. So I spent about an hour and a half today. I’m just sending some emails out to folks planning what that program is going to look like. And so we will have, I believe our SOD producers intend to have
a portion of their session dedicated to talking a little bit about labor, maybe talking specifically about H2A labor. Our intention to right now on the UT extension side is we’re looking at, so there’s a professor here, Dr. Margarita Valandia, who is in our A -Rec department, Ag Economics department. She has developed some great resources for H2A labor and trying to work with her to finalize some H2B resources, really busy time, we’re
slowly moving them forward. So, you we do have some professional landscapers, golf or superintendents or golf courses, I should say, that are utilizing that program as an additional labor source. So we’ve got that going on. And sometimes I run into when I’m researching articles, I’m looking for good economic research of, who’s working and who needs more people who having numbers on the labor challenges.
Julie Holt (17:52.078)
It’s been really tricky and it seems all anecdotal, but it adds up to a full picture of most of our golf courses just don’t have enough staff and our LCOs are all working 25 hours a day. Do you guys have a way that you quantify that or like, can you see good data and numbers for that?
There was a really great and very thorough economic study that was done, I want to say about 10 years ago, that’s been published for the state of Tennessee for the golf or the turf grass industry. But since that was conducted, I don’t know, you know, those types of studies are, are, they’re, are challenging to complete and they require very focused bandwidth and willingness from, people to respond and participate. so,
You know, I don’t know that we have anything super recent to try to capture that specific to Tennessee. It would be interesting to see whether GCSAA, whether they’ve done anything along those lines. I’m not sure whether they have or not, but, you know, certainly some of the labor challenges are not unique to our state. So, so that’s a really good question, but I don’t, I don’t, we haven’t done anything here in a while that I’m aware of.
that don’t know what’s being done by some of those other entities. That’s a big puzzle to try to put together for sure. Okay, let’s close with what would be your best case scenario coming out of this first big event, the inaugural Beacon event? What would be really succeeded and this is why we do this and let’s do it again result from your Beacon event in September. I think for us,
For this event in particular, success would look like good student engagement, success in at least some of our employers that come through have promising leads, if not commitments to have students join them for internships or, you know, continue discussions about job opportunities. I think we really want to see that.
Julie Holt (20:04.312)
There’s some tangible evidence that those relationships have been formed and everybody leaves feeling like they’ve made new professional connections and it’s going to strengthen, you know, overall experience as professionals in the industry. Well said. And that’s a great goal. Dr. Bowling, thank you so much again for joining me and I wish you so much success for this event and for all your big plans coming up.
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