Getting to Know a Penn Stater

A second year student at The Pennsylvania State University, Adrien Van Dyk is studying in the two year turf program. He got his start at the early age of 13 working on a nine hole golf course near his home in West Calendonia, NS, Canada. He has been at it ever since.

His love for the turf industry brought him to Penn State to study in arguably the top program in the country. It is at Penn State that he was prepared on the importance of networking and professionalism. Being a two year program, Adrien emphasizes the importance to make the most out of the short time spent at Penn State because it will be over before you know it. Out of all his experiences one of his most memorable was a trip to Orlando, Fl. Adrien and a team of Penn State turf students went there to compete in the Sports Turf Managers Association conference and went on to win the competition. The victory would not have been possible if Penn State had not prepared him with the knowledge needed to be successful in the turfgrass industry. Adrien contributes a large part of this to a turfgrass soils class taught by Dr. McNitt. This was his favorite class of many taken at Penn State. He states that he learned a tremendous amount of information that is applicable to the industry and this proved true in Orlando.

On his internship at Greywolf Golf Course in Panorama Mountain Villiage, BC, Canada, Adrien learned the importance of setting goals and communicating those goals to his superintendent, Darren Reddekopp to make sure they were able to be carried out. Adrien held the position of second assistant and faced many challenges throughout the season. With frost as deep as 4 plus feet in the ground there were as many as 80 irrigation breaks due to frost heaving. With 25 new employees with no course experience it was added challenge due to the direct supervision that these new employees needed.

With this knowledge and experience, Adrien plans to return home to Canada and apply his Penn State education to have a successful career in the golf course management industry.