Star student Trevan Flynn is in every respect a very worthy recipient of the HORTGRO Science/Daan Strydom Prize as the best student in horticultural science in 2015 at Stellenbosch University (SU). So says Dr Lynn Hoffman, chair of the SU Department of Horticultural Science, who presented the prize to Flynn in absentia at the recent HORTGRO Science Technical Symposium.

Flynn, who hails from the USA, is currently working in Aspen in Colorado, where he is maintaining and running an irrigation system on a 100 plus hectare property consisting of native Rocky Mountain plants.

He first fell in love with South Africa during a weeklong visit to country in 2009, as part of a "Semester at Sea" study programme. After a stint as gardener in Aspen in the company of two inspiring horticulturalists, he knew he wanted to work with plants. Upon returning to South Africa in 2012, Flynn initially intended to study Viticulture and Oenology at SU. "However, it was not until I met the professors that I knew horticulture was for me," Flynn wrote from the USA about his decision to change his study programme.

The rest is history. Flynn received his BSc Agric degree in Soil Science and Horticulture cum laude last year, and was awarded the Perold Medal in 2015 as the best undergraduate student in the Faculty of AgriSciences. For three years running he also received academic merit bursaries from the University.

Flynn hopes to return at some stage, to hopefully put into practice the knowledge he gained at Stellenbosch University. "I would like to have a role in conservation agriculture, improve food access, and/or possibly continue my studies!" dreams Flynn, who has done an internship at Agrimotion consultancy and also worked as a research assistant in the Department of Horticultural Science.