At State High, it’s about people and place—but now it’s also about the pollinators. Biology teacher Danielle Rosensteel is bringing together students and the Penn State Master Gardeners to create a vibrant pollinator garden located near State High. Rosensteel wants this garden to support pollinators and the entire State High community.
Rosensteel says, “The garden could benefit all State High students because it can be used for a variety of classes, clubs, and programs, including biology, environmental, outdoor, photography and art classes…So once it is set up, really any group could use it.”
The Master Gardeners, Pam and Doug Ford, have great expertise in helping design the garden. They have worked on a number of projects at State College Area School District (SCASD) schools, including gardens at Mount Nittany Elementary, Spring Creek Elementary, and Radio Park Elementary. They created a layered landscape approach that will add many more types of flowering plants than what is found in typical home pollinator gardens.
Pam Ford said, “More diversity, that’s what we’re going for. Diversity of forms, heights, flower shapes and colors and blooming seasons.” She explained that this diversity will help support more types of pollinators, as well as birds.
Rosensteel created the plan for the garden in 2018, but it was almost 7 years before her plan would blossom. Rosensteel moved to State College after receiving a degree in Entomology, Biology, Chemistry, and Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Georgia.
Rosensteel signed up for a short course in 2018 for science teachers hosted by the Penn State Center for Pollinator Research and the Center for Science and the School. In this course, the teachers learned about pollinators and what flowers and habitats they need to survive. This program inspired Rosensteel to start a pollinator garden at State High. With help from Pam and Doug Ford, both Master Gardeners, and a student, Madelin Croskren, Rosensteel created a plan for the garden.
Like all gardens, this was a team effort. Rosensteel connected the administrators, the teachers, the students and the Master Gardeners at State High to make the garden a reality. Pam and Doug Ford are advisors; they make suggestions for the garden and provide plants. The manager for the garden is senior Dash Nealon. Nealon played a large role in the overall creation of this pollinator garden.
“I go out to the garden during the school day and I weed it and assess it, see what’s working, what isn’t working, what’s healthy, what needs support…and I coordinate people to come out to the garden,” Nealon said.
The pollinator garden is centrally located, where many people will see it. The garden is between the agriculture greenhouse and the practice football field and adjacent to the teacher parking lot. However, when the team finally broke ground on the garden in 2024, they found the location to be a uniquely challenging site, since it is on a steep slope.
Rosensteel also noted, “I think our biggest challenge was the budget and timing and creating something so large that would be accessible to everybody and anybody could use for a variety of different reasons. We’ve been doing a great job of using our resources and reaching out for community support.”
Despite the challenges, the pollinator garden team is persevering. The team hopes that students will have access to the garden by May 2026, and by September 2026, the garden will have signage to provide accessible information to all students.
To help support this pollinator garden, students can volunteer on Thursdays. To donate, simply contact Danille Rosensteel at [email protected] for further information.
When discussing the future of the garden, Pam Ford said, “I think every year it’ll grow more.” This garden can grow for pollinators and the State High community.
