Virginia Tech’s Virtual School of Turfgrass Ecology & Management
An affordable way to advance the professional development of staff or crew members
The VT Turfgrass Team is pleased to announce it is now accepting registrations for its 3rd annual virtual Virginia Tech School of Turfgrass Ecology and Management (https://tinyurl.com/VT-Turfgrass-School). This year’s school opens on November 5, 2022, but for all of our early registrants, we provide our VT-STEM Training Manual so that students can begin to prepare in advance if they wish. The school features synchronous and asynchronous learning activities that work around the student’s schedule and train in all areas of introductory turfgrass science, covering both cool- and warm-season grasses, soil science, irrigation and water management, pest management, nutrition and cultural programs, water quality and environmental protection, and turfgrass mathematics. We provide pre- and post-training quizzes for student assessment, and meet with the students on Wednesday evenings weekly from 7-9 p.m. to review, field new questions/discussion areas, and meet with an industry guest to learn about their job and experience in the turfgrass industry. All students that pass the weekly quizzes are eligible to sit for the Virginia Tech Certified Turfgrass Professional exams at the end of School, another benefit available as part of the tuition ($515 per person) for the 13+ weeks of training. The certification program provides the students the opportunity to confirm their mastery of the principles of turfgrass ecology and management.
The funds we generate from this program are used to support the operations of the VT Turfgrass Research Center and our outreach programs. Our students come from all segments of the turfgrass industry (as well as 14 different states/territories to date), but we have had students from approximately 15 golf courses across Va through the first two years of School. We hope that our industry partners will consider this an investment in employee development. Any questions – contact Mike Goatley at goatley@vt.edu. Thanks!