GREENSBORO, N.C. — A 300-acre tract of woodland in Liberty, North Carolina, on the southwest corner of Toyota North Carolina’s battery manufacturing plant site, will soon take on new features as an environmental education forest, thanks to the talents of seven students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University’s landscape architecture program.
Under the direction of professor Steve Rasmussen Cancian, the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences students will design and build a culturally inclusive, environmentally friendly outdoor experience involving a trail system and a variety of outdoor educational environments.
Sean Suggs, president of Toyota North Carolina, and members of his team visited the landscape architecture program in Carver Hall recently to hear those student ideas and more, and see first-hand how their designs will mesh with Toyota’s goal of engaging children with nature while preserving nature.
The connection between the giant automaker and the landscape architecture department began with a lucky meeting between Cancian and Michael Robinson, a senior engineering manager for Toyota North Carolina.
Robinson was interested in finding a way to engage children with nature while preserving nature on the giant site, and in creating opportunities for children to overcome the sedentary lifestyle.
Cancian’s senior class decided to take the project on, envisioning nature trails, overlooks, identification stops and even a floating platform for identifying fish.
Robinson steered the idea through its approval process and the students made their first “scouting” visit to the tract earlier this fall.
"They far exceeded my expectations, as far as the development and their studies. They studied the landscape, they studied the soil, they studied the sunshade, the flora, they studied everything and then came with some really innovative designs, that, to be honest with you, I could have never have thought of," Robinson said.
Robinson joined Suggs and two other Toyota employees – environmental engineer Natasha Montiel and engineering manager Darius Weatherford, an A&T alumnus – in the visit to the university program, where they asked questions and probed the students’ thinking during their presentations.
This partnership gives the company insight into what people would like to see in an educational center and nature trails but it's also providing A&T students with the experience of a lifetime, a look at what it takes to work with a big client like Toyota.
Senior A&T student, Ciara Knight said this experience has helped guide her future career, "I think it really helped me begin to see my design on site and like see certain aspects of things I wanted to design and I never got to experience that before. So, that was really cool."
"This is the student's capstone project, and the desire is to make it as real as possible, so it's a blessing to have a partnership with someone like Toyota whose actually gonna build this," Cancian said.
The senior class will officially start work this spring at the 1,800-acre site, Toyota’ first dedicated to battery electric, plug-in hybrid and hybrid battery production.
The environmental education forest is Toyota’s second investment in A&T. In September 2022, the company awarded a $500,000 grant to the College of Education to foster science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM) education.