Despite having no sunlight, water or soil, a tree has been growing and blossoming in the lobby of one of our Rochester Tech Park offices for nearly two years. How is such a phenomenon possible? The only nutrient this tree needs is student success. 

The project began in 2017 as a way to celebrate Better Hearing and Speech Month, which occurs every May. It started with leaves that featured various speech accomplishments attained by students in our programs. Speech teachers and therapists worked with the Work-Based Learning Program at RTP to use the die-cut machine to cut out each individual leaf. The following year, the same group worked together to add flowers. Now nearly two years later, it has become a beautiful work of art that many students from several programs can be proud of. 

“The tree is a wonderful way to showcase student accomplishments and really represents the wide range of students and abilities that we work with at BOCES,” said Speech-Language Pathologist Megan Knopp. “It’s so nice to walk by the tree as I go into the office and be reminded of our students’ achievements and hard work.”