Past Features
Featuring: Dr. Rolston St. Hilaire
Ph.D. in Horticulture - Spring, 1998
Following is a statement from Dr. Rolston St. Hilaire:
"I grew up in the eastern Caribbean island of Dominica. My father was trained in agriculture, so I was exposed early to horticulture. I recall our family moving from one agriculture station to another as my dad transferred from one part of the island to next.
Not surprisingly, I studied agriculture at the Eastern Caribbean Institute of Agriculture and Forestry in Trinidad. I returned to Dominica, and for a while, I helped coordinate an agriculture program at a technical college. I enjoyed growing soybeans and vegetables. We sold vegetables at the local market and used the funds generated from this venture to improve our program.
In 1998, I left Dominica for the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) at Mayagüez where I earned B.S. and M.S. degrees in horticulture. In 1994, during the final year of M.S. at the University of Puerto Rico, I applied to the Doctoral program at Iowa State University. At that time, I flip-flopped on my decision to continue graduate school. This is contrary to how I advise prospective and current graduate students. My half-hearted attempt to apply to Iowa State University became very serious when Dr. Bill Graves inquired whether I was still interested in the horticulture department. Dr. Graves' call made the difference, and soon I left the University of Puerto Rico for Ames.
I arrived in Ames in August 1994 to join Dr. Graves' research program. I worked on the ecophysiology of woody plants, which is one of my current research themes. Having lived in the tropics, I valued snow. However, by the time I graduated from ISU in 1998, the novelty of snow had worn off. Along the way to the Ph.D., I married Marlene Peltier in 1995. Our first son, Jael was born at Mary Greeley Hospital in January 1997.
Interestingly, Jael's current third grade teacher was born in Iowa, so he keeps asking her questions about Iowa. We obviously need to schedule a trip back to Ames so that Jael can gather first-hand data about Iowa. We are confident that Liam, our second son, will find Jael's birthplace as charming and welcoming as Marlene and I found it when we were there.
As an Associate Professor in the Department of Agronomy and Horticulture at New Mexico State University, my main teaching responsibility is for the landscape horticulture program. I strive to infuse innovative instructional strategies into my horticulture classes. I'm also developing new models for instructing landscape horticulture. I've been very fortunate to be recognized for effective teaching with the university-wide Patricia Christmore Teaching award in 2001 and the College of Agriculture's Distinguish Teaching Award in 2002. I have enjoyed crafting a research program that centers on environmental stress physiology and urban landscape water conservation strategies. With an average annual rainfall of only 8 inches in southern New Mexico, my research is valuable to southern New Mexico, but also to arid and semi-arid land horticulture.
I'm active in professional horticulture organizations. I currently chair the recently formed New Mexico Urban Landscape Water Conservation Coordinating Committee.
One of the most rewarding life decisions has been to join the horticulture department. The horticulture department's faculty and staff, and in particular, Dr. Graves, facilitated my transition from the University of Puerto Rico to Iowa State. I received excellent mentoring. I try to pattern graduate student advising and my professional career based on my Iowa State experience.
I am perpetually proud to be an ISU horticulture alumnus."
