Lured by the prospects of being able to have hands on experience with St. Francis College’s greenhouse, Barbara Cheung, a freshman double-majoring in Biology and English, was disappointed to see that the “greenhouse” was just a small dome on the roof of the school.
With hopes of one day becoming a botanist, Cheung thought St. Francis College was the perfect choice, because of the connections SFC has with the Botanical Gardens, the Botanical Society and other various science programs that the school had to offer.
She was deeply disappointed when she did come to the school and found out that the science programs had nonfunctioning connections to the Botanical Gardens and the Botanical Society.
“I was in distress and I didn’t want to be a botanist anymore", said Cheung, "because, how can I be; I was stuck in this school. So I went to my advisor, Dr. Kathleen Nolan and [she] said, what are you talking about, there is a greenhouse?”
Past the secret freight elevator, where packaging goes up to the offices, and up another flight of stairs will bring you to the sunny roof where you get a spectacular view of the Statue of Liberty as well as a small section reserved for the greenhouse.
The funding for the greenhouse is usually given by the science department, however, when they were short on materials, Cheung and Dr. Kathleen Nolan would buy and bring their own supplies. “I have my own watering can,” Cheung said proudly.
Around last December, when plans for the greenhouse project were starting to go into motion, it all came to a sudden halt when there was an asbestos outbreak. Fast forward four months and the asbestos is starting to clear, which will allow students in the fall term of 2010 to start working on the greenhouse.
Although the greenhouse is just a small plot of soil and is still bare by two or three years, hopefully, the greenhouse will have blooming flowers and herbs that will help expand the science department to another level.