Araya Hopp
Araya Hopp
she/her
- Learning by Leading roles: Landscape Assistant & Waterway Stewardship, Apprentice and Co-Coordinator (2023-2026)
- Major: Marine and Coastal Science
I moved to Davis in the winter quarter of 2023, everyone already had a quarter under their belts and had found groups or friends during orientation. I was left trying to figure this all out on my own and although I was, or am, smart, the quiet side of myself halted any attempt at making friends. Come spring 2023 I was looking for a job and the only one who gave me an interview was the position of landscape assistant at the arboretum. The interview turned out to be a group interview, and about 9 other qualified, intelligent and rather outgoing students sat with me against what would be my future mentors.
The importance of describing this scene is to not display myself as the chosen one, but to illustrate the opportunity Leading by Learning gives to students who have not yet found their passion, voice or community within UC Davis. This program is not looking only for experience or goals or ambition, but for potential in someone who can become a leader and has not yet found a path that leads them there.
My early days of working at the arboretum are vastly different from these last few weeks. I started with weeding, seemingly endless weeding, in every garden and every corner of the arboretum and after the summer team disbanded, my work turned solitary. I was grateful for that, it was the perfect opportunity for the land to teach me the difference between what belongs and what has taken over. It taught me I want a career where you can notice the work it took to remove the mustards or incredibly thick toyons and not the type of work where hours can go by but the bedstraw still covers everything in sight.
But slowly, my position began to morph, from being alone all shift to working in a small group, from weeding to planning to leading. And it was when I got to the planning stage of it all that I fully registered the design of the Arboretum, the conflicting goals it strives for and how those two goals are negotiated to serve each other. The healthy disagreement within the space is remaining as an accessible aesthetic public garden and a functioning native habitat. Learning to balance these two ideals, especially when people all value the two differently, is not something you can easily pick up on in the classroom but still rests at the source of every environmental problem and solution. This is why I am a marine science major at the Arboretum waterway, since the principles and lessons remain the same regardless of salinity levels.
My last responsibility here has been leading a new team of students, and alongside my cohort of waterway stewards, we somehow managed to condense our combined 10 years of knowledge at the arboretum into 10 sessions. This passing of the torch has helped me understand where I started three years ago and recognize how much I've learned—much of which I'd long since filed away as muscle memory. I've grown into this leadership role over the last three years through the trust of my mentors and the roles they've pushed me into, knowing the potential all of us students have at being leaders. Not all leaders are obvious, and as someone who did not start off as talkative and confident, I don't think I would've been given as much responsibility or leading opportunities as the Arboretum has given me.
I am beyond grateful for this opportunity and know I will forget about all those times I didn’t want to bike at 6:30 am, or work in 100 degree weather because I'll only reminisce about the good moments and recognize then how far this experience has taken me.