New instructor growing bilingual classes that better empower local landscapers
Story by Misty Bouse. Photos by James Hill.
Rachel Munzig’s bilingual landscaping courses are designed to break down cultural barriers.
In a landmark development, Portland Community College is expanding its bilingual class offerings in its Landscape Technology Technology (LAT) Program to better connect and serve Spanish-speaking workers in the landscape industry.
Rachel Munzig is the new full-time faculty member who is leading the effort within the program. Based at the Rock Creek Campus, she focuses on industry outreach and developing dedicated non-credit courses conducted in Spanish — a first for PCC — that serve the industry’s bilingual workforce.
Her vision for her role at PCC extends beyond individual classes, though. She hopes to reach as deep and wide as the walnut trees to remove barriers for landscapers. The nut of her liaison work with landscaping firms is that she hopes to find further sponsorship support in the form of partnerships and grants. Munzig would like to underwrite more courses like the “Winter Pruning Workshop” she taught last December to 26 mostly Spanish-speaking landscapers, who enrolled on their employers’ behest to further their skills.
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The PCC Landscape Technology Program integrates horticulture, environmental science and art to prepare students for green industry careers. With hands-on training in skills like pruning, irrigation and design, expert faculty provide industry-relevant instruction. Located at the Rock Creek Campus, the program fosters community, networking and partnerships for career success in landscaping.
“The goal is to empower workers with Spanish-language training, enabling them to advance their skills and careers, becoming future arborists, irrigation experts, and leaders,” said Munzig.
Munzig brings a wealth of experience and credentials to the program. A double major in Biology-Environmental Studies and Spanish at Bowdoin University in Maine, she also holds a graduate certificate in Urban Forestry from Oregon State University and is an International Society of Arboriculture (ISA)-certified arborist.
Raised on her family’s avocado and citrus farm in Southern California, she grew up immersed in the bilingual nature of agriculture.
“It’s a bilingual industry like landscaping,” Munzig said. “How do we alleviate barriers to meet current workers’ needs?”
She is extra considerate of the hurdles of non-English speakers navigating online.
“Are they computer savvy? Do they have internet access? Can they afford to skill-up?” she said. “So, I’m excited for the launch of this new program and to deep dive into meeting these needs.”
Munzig has developed a deep appreciation for the Rock Creek Campus, which serves as her expansive laboratory for her classes and demonstrations. The largest campus by acreage has been cultivated over the past 40 years ago and is something of an arboretum — a perfect campus to lead landscape classes.
Munzig demonstrates winter pruning basics.
“The grounds crew, including alums Jeremy Cantrell and Arturo Portera, are doing an amazing job,” Munzig said. “It’s beautiful. There’s so much we can learn from the natural world and trees.”
Her career has been a balance of cultivating plants and connecting with people. She lived in Paraguay for two years working with both trees and the community. In 2019, Munzig taught for the LAT Program under a short-term grant, offering pruning and plant identification courses in both Spanish and English.
“One of the reasons we’re doing this work is to be responsive to industry, providing education to all members of the industry, and to help provide upward mobility within the landscaping field,” said Tara Nelson, program dean for PCC’s Building, Environmental Technology & Trades. “We hope to expand what we currently offer in response to industry.”
Beyond teaching, Munzig worked in community-focused roles, including with the Portland Fruit Tree Project, which gleans fruit from urban orchards for food pantries and shelters. She also co-founded Alder Commons, a nonprofit multigenerational and multicultural community space where people of all ages can learn, collaborate and grow. She also volunteered with local environmental justice nonprofit Verde where she tutored Spanish-speakers to prepare for the ISA Arborist exam.
Industry has asked PCC for bilingual landscape classes for their workers.
Munzig said she believes efforts like her bilingual PCC courses can create ripples of change in the industry.
“Great things happen when you meet people where they are,” she added. “By offering landscapers Spanish-language training to skill up, we can support the industry in building a more inclusive and skilled workforce, one worker and one father-and-son team or larger business at a time.”
For more information, please visit https://www.pcc.edu/programs/landscape/.