Portland Adventist Academy (PAA) senior Andrea Melnychenko chose to design and plant a landscape at PAA's south entrance as her senior project.
Melnychenko's interest came from working the last two summers as well as evenings and weekends during the school year at a nursery in Tualatin, Ore.
Each PAA senior is required to do a senior project that includes getting faculty approval for the project, completing the project and presenting the completed project to a faculty committee using electronic or video media.
Melnychenko went an additional step. She prepared and submitted a grant proposal to PAA’s Committee of 100 to fund her project.
She had planned to start the project in the spring of 2004, but she had to wait for an herbicide applied to the area to dissipate. She considers this as part of the learning process and has now chosen to use organic fertilizers and soil rather than introducing synthetically produced fertilizers.
As part of the project, Melnychenko hand cut more than one ton of flagstone for a walkway. A family friend built a cherrywood bench for the project.
The landscape includes pampas grass, hydrangeas, flowering cherry trees, magnolias and day lilies. Melnychenko also designed and built a drip watering system to eliminate the need for hand watering during the dry summer months.
With her interest in botany stimulated by this senior project, Melnychenko plans on majoring in biology and going into plant research as her life work.
PAA students, from left: Matthew Sexton, Derek Lange, Andrea Melnychenko, and Ashley Koronko enjoy the landscaped garden Melnychenko created.
