March 2002: Vol. 81, No. 2

Trail blazer

Sigrid Kennebrew, who made a conscious decision to attend a traditionally white institution, is about to earn her third degree from UGA—at the tender age of 27

by Michael Childs

igrid Kennebrew's father died in the last quarter of her senior year at UGA, shortly after he and his daughter had prepared and mailed applications for graduate study they had begun planning when Sigrid was a high school freshman. His death nearly derailed those plans.

"I did not want to continue that journey without his support," Kennebrew recalls, "but I realized that my plan to earn a Ph.D. in the psychology profession was our dream—and if I could survive losing my biggest fan, I could excel in any challenge placed before me."

Several years later, Kennebrew (AB '96, MEd '98) is close to realizing that dream. Thanks to the support of family, friends—and her mentors at UGA—she now helps solve other people's problems. Midway through a year-long internship at the Bradley Center of St. Francis Hospital in Columbus, Ga., Kennebrew counsels individuals and groups, with the goal of helping them understand and overcome whatever difficulties they're having in life. When she finishes her internship this summer, she will have completed her third degree at UGA—and all at the tender age of 27.

The future is wide open for this Richmond, Va., native, who wants to become either a college professor, a researcher, or a staff psychologist at a university counseling center or community mental health agency.

But Sigrid Kennebrew also has a broader goal in life—to help increase diversity among university faculty in America.

"I want to serve as a role model," she says. "I want to help African-American graduate students go through this growth process. I want to impact people who will create change in our world."

And who better to tackle such an important task than Kennebrew, who has spent years researching the experiences of African-American graduate students at traditionally white institutions —while living that very same existence herself.

One of only seven students in the nation to receive the prestigious Patricia Cross Future Leaders fellowship from the American Association of Higher Education last spring, Kennebrew says she is fortunate to be studying in the counseling department in UGA's College of Education, where faculty members are sensitive to diversity issues, where research on multicultural issues is being conducted, and where a number of the faculty members are people of color.

"UGA has provided a strong foundation for me to succeed—academically, professionally and personally," says Kennebrew. "When I moved into my major classes, I was able to learn in a smaller setting in study groups and able to form close working relationships with professors and peers."

Kennebrew gives special credit to two College of Education faculty members—John Dagley and Rosemary Phelps—for having a major impact on her career development.

"Dr. Dagley taught me how basic helping skills—genuineness, care, and empathy—are keys to success in the therapeutic process," she says. What Kennebrew learned from Dagley rang true when she began doing research on minorities, who are typically reluctant to use counseling services because of trust issues.

"Through teaching and supervision," says Kennebrew, "I can promote the development of these helping skills in future mental health professionals, thus improving patient experiences, societal perceptions of counseling, and the use of counseling by all groups."

Rosemary Phelps, an African American herself, has become Kennebrew's role model and mentor, teaching her to avoid categorizing and stereotyping clients and to use her assessment skills to guide her work with each individual. Phelps, in turn, cites Kennebrew's strength and determination as reasons for her success.

Kennebrew became interested in studying African-American graduate student experiences at traditionally white institutions while working on her master's in community counseling in 1997, when Phelps asked her to be a member of her diversity research team.

"She developed such good research skills that by the second year of her doctoral work, she was teaching new students on the team how to do research," says Phelps. "She was actually mentoring a lot of those students. She also started making presentations at regional and national conferences on how to do research."

Kennebrew's research reveals that when African-American students have problems with their research, academic performance, and self-perception, it often stems from a faculty member being an inattentive listener or having low expectations for them.

"Oftentimes, at traditionally white institutions, there is not only a scarcity of African-American students, but also a dearth of African-American professors and mentors," says Phelps. "These students feel disconnected from the institution or do not complete their degrees."

Phelps, whose research has focused on recruitment and retention of African-American students in higher education, says the percentage of diverse faculty in higher education has been dismally low over the last 40 years and does not seem to be increasing significantly.

"Part of the problem is a pipeline issue," she says. "We need to start acquainting students with academe as a career option much earlier than we do. And we need to help those African Americans who do choose an academic career because they often encounter serious and unique difficulties—such as being a token, having difficulty with the promotion and tenure process, and facing a lack of respect for their research areas."

Phelps and two of her UGA colleagues, Kecia Thomas and Tarek Grantham, have been successful in getting a two-year grant from the national Preparing Future Faculty program.

The PFF program, which includes 43 doctoral degree-granting universities and 295 partner institutions, provides selected Ph.D. students with opportunities for seminars, classroom observation, and teaching. The two-year grant sponsored by the PFF program and funded through the American Psychological Association amounts to $10,000 each year—and UGA supplies matching funds.

ennebrew, one of eight UGA doctoral students who participated in the PFF program during the 2000-01 academic year, taught a graduate-level course in community counseling at North Georgia College and State University. She says her experience helped her professionally by helping her understand the teaching, research, and service roles she will play if she chooses a career in higher education.

Born into a family of educators, Kennebrew entered UGA as a freshman in 1992 after graduating from Sprayberry High School in Marietta. "My parents were able to attend only historically black colleges and universities during the 1960s because of segregation," says Kennebrew, who was accepted at both Georgia Tech and UGA. "I chose UGA because I became familiar with it when my sister was a student here."

Kennebrew says her early experiences as a minority student at UGA were not unlike those at her large high school, where she was one of only 100 African Americans in a student population of 2,000.

"I disliked being the only African-American student in most of my classes," she recalls. "When I first came here, I felt as if students of color were unwelcome because the institution did little to embrace our cultural heritage. There were few organizations or activities to specifically address our interpersonal and mental health needs."

Kennebrew was disheartened to see Confederate flags in the windows of fraternity houses and few African-American faculty teaching her classes. But she appreciated the fact that the University was developing student affairs programming for students of color. As an undergrad, she lived in residence halls and participated in student organizations like the Black Affairs Council, Committee for Black Cultural Programs, and the Abeneefoo Kuo honor society. Such involvement provided her with a sense of community and support.

As a graduate student, she served three years as a mentor in UGA's Continuing the Legacy of African-American Student Success (C.L.A.S.S.) program, which is designed to enhance academic performance and student retention. She helped develop academic and social activities, led diversity training sessions, provided emotional and collegial support, fostered team building, and was a liaison to the housing department.

After 10 years at UGA, Kennebrew is encouraged to see more African-American students involved in leadership positions. "UGA has made improvements," she says, "and I feel as if the institution and I both won because of my matriculation. I wish I'd had more African-American faculty, but I am thankful that my final five years were spent in a department that supported and allowed me to celebrate and voice my identity."

Would Kennebrew recommend UGA to other students of color?

"It would depend on the individual's previous experiences," she says. "If a student needs consistent reminders of his or her heritage for strength and encouragement, I would suggest they pursue higher education at an historically black college or university. If the student feels they have a solid foundation of cultural heritage that has been instilled in them generationally, I believe that individual would be equipped with all the tools he or she needs to successfully achieve their goals at UGA."

Plant doc

Horticulture professor Allan Armitage puts the power of his research at your front door (and all over your yard)

by Alex Crevar (AB '93)

efore UGA horticulture professor Allan Armitage became a flower guru—praised the world over for his garden discoveries—he was known in his native Canada as the "plant doctor." Still a decade from beginning his research in earnest, Armitage says all he wanted from horticulture then was "just a good job."

"I made house calls to treat houseplants," says Armitage, who came to UGA in 1980. "Canadians treat their plants like pets. In the winter, I'd have to bundle up and make evening visits to care for the plants—and their distraught owners. I made about a nickel doing it."

Armitage came to UGA from his native Canada in 1980, expecting to stay two years on what he considered a foreign assignment. His text, Herbaceous Garden Perennials, has become a plant bible.

Some 30 years later, Armitage tops a short list of internationally acclaimed floriculturists, and his presence on the faculty—along with the recently retired Mike Dirr—helped elevate UGA's reputation as a center of horticulture research and public outreach. Armitage has received nearly every plant award imaginable. So revered is he that the Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers created the Allan Armitage Leadership Award in his honor. Between Armitage and the much-decorated tree-and-shrub expert Dirr (see GM, June '01), UGA has become synonymous with plant research.

"School reputations are based on people," says Armitage, who originally agreed to come to the far-off locale of Georgia with the intent of staying only two years and calling it a foreign assignment. "But it's not just people as much as it is their ability to have something to say."

What Armitage has to say is important not just to students in his classroom, to UGA colleagues, and to fellow researchers on the lecture circuit, but to the quality of people's lives. Unlike math research, which may reveal the secrets of bridge construction or make satellite launches possible, Armitage is in the business of enhancing the ambient beauty of our backyards—and it has won him a slew of fans.

"Look to your right, what book do you see?" asks UGA athletic director Vince Dooley, a renowned gardening devotee.

The book on Dooley's shelf—next to Dirr's Manual of Woody Landscape Plants—is Armitage's reference text, Herbaceous Garden Perennials, ranked as one of the 75 most important horticultural books from the last 75 years by the American Horticultural Society. Armitage has written eight books in all; the most recent, Legends In The Garden, devotes a chapter to Dooley and his wife Barbara and the Hydrangea macrophylla 'Dooley' that is named for them. "He has written the bible on his subject and he is passionate about what he does," says Dooley. "Allan is also a good friend, whom I have gotten to know even more because his son may end up as Georgia's starting shortstop."

t was 10 years ago this month that words like prolific, well-respected, and even "horticultural Indiana Jones," began preceding Armitage's name in press releases, on dust jackets, and in lecture introductions. Riding with Mike Dirr to Atlanta, UGA's green-thumb version of Rodgers & Hart spotted a roadside patch of purple neither had seen before. After receiving permission from the yard's owner to take seven cuttings, they rushed back to test what would later be known as Verbena 'Homestead Purple.'

Homestead Purple became world-famous for its beauty and hardiness, even in heat and humidity. It was the first of a growing line of discoveries that have made Armitage and Athens household garden names. "It became the number-one selling plant all over the land," says Armitage of Homestead Purple, "and though the University and myself received credit for the research, we didn't make a penny, nor intended to."

His next discovery was the chartreuse Sweet Potato 'Margarita.'

"It also went like crazy and was a top seller," says Armitage. "The two plants were sort of like REM and the B52s. Although we got nothing out of this one either, we were becoming well-known for introducing and developing pretty good plants."

In the case of Homestead Purple and Margarita, development started with the serendipitous discovery of wild plants with commercial potential, followed by propagation and then evaluation. Both plants performed so well in UGA greenhouses that they were given to growers, who gladly promoted them.

The studio where Armitage was producing his hits was one he opened in 1983: UGA's now-famous "All-America" Horticulture Gardens—one of 30 North American gardens designated by "All-America Selections" to conduct trials of new plants and select winners. More than 600 species of annual and perennial plants are currently evaluated there biweekly. Performance ratings are based on flowering, leaf color, uniformity of habit and flower, resistance to insects and diseases, and overall appearance. The primary functions of the garden are research and teaching, but detailed information on different species is provided to gardeners all over the world.

"The horticulture garden has helped educate a whole army of dedicated student workers who plant, dig, weed, clean, and worry about the trial garden," says Armitage, who teaches three to four classes on top of inventing new ways to make flower nuts happy. "While the plants provide the color, the students provide the soul."

n 2000, after years of plant development, which other growers profited from, Armitage decided it was time to market his UGA research. To guarantee quality and generate income, a trademark—Athens Select—was created through the non-profit University of Georgia Research Foundation (UGARF).

Armitage's discoveries are now less serendipitous. They result from planned trips, plant mutations, robust seedling strains, or crossbreeding. As opposed to Homestead Purple and Margaurita, today's "new crops" are developed with more attention given to propagation and the expulsion of viruses.

Athens Select specializes in plants that thrive in heat and humidity. They are germinated from tissue culture and tested by Armitage to ensure healthy, virus-free growth. Research and selections are then shared with specific plant propagators around the world who grow the plants before selling them to garden centers.

From every plant sold (more than a million in two years), three cents goes to UGARF, where it is divided according to a formula, with the initial return going to Armitage. One cent goes to marketing and the rest to the University, the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, and the horticulture department. This process supports the horticulture garden and benefits UGA through the recognition and prestige of the Athens Select trademark.

With nearly 20 plants offered through the trademark, Armitage has come a long way since diagnosing houseplants during Canadian winters for pocket change.

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