BYU Greenhouse manager helps keep campus looking great all year long – The Daily Universe
1. BYU Greenhouse manager helps keep
campus looking great all year long
JUNE 22, 2013 by DYLAN PARKER
CAMPUS, FEATURED
BYU Grounds plant and floral manager Tegwyn Ellingson is one of the driving forces behind
the team that makes campus look beautiful all year round.
As the plant and floral manager, Ellingson manages the BYU
Grounds Greenhouse. He is in charge of taking care of the many
indoor plants on campus, as well as purchasing and growing
different flowers that are found around campus throughout the
year. Ellingson maintains a beautiful campus and also creates a
fun environment for his student team while doing so.
Ellingson started out like many BYU students. When he first got
to college he wasn’t sure what he wanted to study. He felt that
there were many different directions he could take, but was
uncertain about what he would like to do for the rest of his life.
“I had no clue what I was going to do before I got married,”
Ellingson said. “I just bounced around between different majors.
I was going to do public relations, but then I jumped over to
international relations. Then I met my wife, and she asked me
what I was going to do with my life.”
Shawn Cusworth, a student employee,
stands with BYU’s plant and ꞽ螽oral
manager, Tegwyn Ellingson, who
helps maintain campus year-round.
(Photo courtesy Tegwyn Ellingson)
2. Ellingson and his wife decided to sit down and make a list of different subjects that were
interesting to him. In one semester he took different classes, each with subject matter related
to something he liked to do.
“When I was growing up I used to help do stuff in the yard: plant trees and flowers, take care
of the garden, landscaping and things like that,” Ellingson said. “I found out there was a
program here at BYU, and I signed up for the living with plants introductory class and I ended
up sticking with plants.”
After graduation, Ellingson moved to Los Angeles with his young family. He worked for the
landscaping company Initial Tropical Plants until he and his family decided California wasn’t
for them. They returned to Utah, and Ellingson started working at Temple Square as a
gardening manager. It was at Temple Square that he heard about an open job at BYU as the
plant and floral manager. After he applied, he was hired and has been at BYU for the last six
years.
Since working on campus, Ellingson has had many responsibilities, but some of them may go
unnoticed. A few of those responsibilities include taking care of plants in the library,
cultivating the poinsettias that show up on campus around Christmas and preparing all the
flowers on campus for planting.
Ellingson has also created a great environment for his student employees. Though he requires
a lot of his employees, he makes sure that work can be fun as well.
Shawn Cusworth, a landscape management major from Portland, Ore., has worked at the
Greenhouse for almost two years. Working there has helped him learn a lot and helped to
prepare him for his future.
“Working with Tegwyn has been fun,” Cusworth said. “He studied the same thing as me, so he
has been able to teach me a lot of useful things and give me good advice on what I should do.”
Stephanie Snow, a community recreating management major from Provo, said she has enjoyed
her time working at the Greenhouse and has learned a lot from Ellingson.
3. “Tegwyn is a very caring boss,” Snow said. “He really cares about his employees, but
sometimes it’s hard to see because he masks it with sarcasm.”
Snow feels that her time at the Greenhouse has been well spent and that she has learned
more than just how to take care of plants.
“(Working at the Greenhouse) has given me experience as a leader. … It has helped me gain a
little more confidence and has pushed me to do things that I was sacred to do before,” she
said. “These experiences will help me later in life, and I will be able to reflect back on them
and see how I overcame certain problems.”
Although sometimes his work may go unnoticed, Ellingson’s work continues to keep campus
looking beautiful, both inside and out.
TAGS: BYU GREENHOUSE, BYU GROUNDS, CAMPUS, FLOWERS, TEGWYN ELLINGSON
Related News
4. Ed Carter new
associate dean of BYU
College of Fine Arts
and CommunicationsJUNE 21, 2013 by UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS
BREAKING NEWS, CAMPUS, FEATURED
Dean Stephen M. Jones of the Brigham Young University College of Fine Arts and
Communications has announced the appointment of Ed Carter, associate professor of
communications, as an associate dean of the college effective July 1.
Carter replaces Gary Barton, who served as associate dean for three years and will return to
teaching in the Department of Visual Arts.
Carter’s responsibilities will revolve around undergraduate/graduate student matters
including curriculum, assessment, advisement and the college student association, as well as
international programs and student funding.
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“We look forward to working with Ed,” said Jones, “and I have greatly appreciated Gary’s
dedication and commitment and express gratitude for the service he has given the college and
university.”
Carter received a bachelor of arts degree in communications from BYU in 1996, a master of
science degree in journalism from Northwestern University in 1999, a juris doctor degree from
the J. Reuben Clark Law School in 2003 and a master of laws degree in intellectual property
from the University of Edinburgh School of Law in 2009.
He was hired as a faculty member in the BYU Department of Communications in 2004 after
completing a law clerkship with a Federal Appeals Court judge.
His scholary articles have appeared in Communication Law and Policy, Journalism & Mass
Communication Quarterly, Newspaper Research Journal, Rutgers Law Journal and BYU
Studies, to name a few publications.
Carter has also served as head of the Media Law Division for the Association for Education in
Journalism and Mass Communications, the largest academic communications association in
the nation.
He has previously served as associate chair for undergraduate studies in the Department of
Communications and also served on university, state and national committees. He has taught
news writing/editing/reporting and media law and ethics while at BYU.
For more information, contact Ed Carter at (801) 422.4340 or ed_carter@byu.edu.
