For Jacob Mattlin, growing up to find his drive and passion was a difficult and, sometimes, winding journey. He discovered a love for plants and horticulture as a teenager and is now pursuing a unique career path in plant science.
Originally from Bakersfield, California, and self-described as a lonely kid, Mattlin found comfort in watching YouTube videos about house-plant cultivation and picked up the hobby. The first plant that his mom brought home for him started a domino effect that drove his educational and professional career prospects.
After graduating high school, Mattlin learned that he could pursue plant cultivation as a major and that there was an entire career-oriented industry around it. He specifically searched for a university that offered ornamental horticulture as a major, and by taking plant-science courses at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Mattlin surrounded himself in an environment where his hobby could flourish into more.
There, Mattlin describes how his passion for plants, which sprung from a place of loneliness, led him to new social circles. He interned at the greenhouse, joined the horticulture club on campus, and met others who shared his enthusiasm.
“While my love for plant care originally came from a place of loneliness,” he said, “I found a whole social group centered around it at Cal Poly, which made my love for it grow even more.”
Yet after doing an internship in landscaping, Mattlin wasn’t sure what path he wanted his career to take after graduation. He knew that the educational aspect of horticulture was appealing but wasn’t sure how best to pursue it. When presented with an opportunity to move to the East Coast for graduate school, Mattlin decided to try his hand in plant-science research. Mattlin wanted an opportunity to explore what research would look like and rationalized that a graduate degree would also aid him in becoming a horticultural educator.
He attended graduate school at Pennsylvania State University but learned that a career in plant science research was not for him. Through conducting plant experiments and collecting data, Mattlin learned that his love in cultivating plants came from a place of social connection.
“There’s something about leading someone into loving plants, which I got to experience in my education, but was lacking during my graduate research, that I just really missed,” he said.
After earning his master’s degrees, Mattlin quickly found that job opportunities in horticultural education were narrow and that many of the roles that were available were in rural, less diverse, and potentially unwelcoming areas, which, as an LGBTQ-identifying individual, made him feel nervous about moving to.
But even moving to a city, San Diego, to work in landscaping turned out to be an environment that wasn’t accepting of him. Coworkers, he said, would often use the word “gay” as an insult, which made him feel isolated.
“I felt so uncomfortable there, so I never felt comfortable admitting my sexuality to my coworkers,” he said.
Mattlin eventually found himself turning back to his original trajectory in horticulture: education. Mattlin currently works as an associate customer success manager in education technology in San Diego, where he helps implement teaching curriculum into school districts, working closely with educators to do so.
“I miss the educational aspect of how plants can bring people together,” he said, as he works to carve out a space for that. Similar to how he first became interested in plant cultivation through watching YouTube videos, Mattlin wishes to create content on social media platforms for plant education.
“There isn’t a big space in the plant industry for what I want to do, but in this new age of technology, social media can fill this gap,” Mattlin said.
In San Diego for example, there are plant biotechnology companies, landscape horticulture, one botanical garden, and a handful of plant science teaching/professor roles. To expand and diversify the sector, Mattlin believes he can create his own job market as he has seen other plant science influencers do.
Armed with his experience in implementing educational curriculum, Mattlin believes he can use his skills to launch his own one-of-a-kind horticulture education through social media. Known as The Phyto Freak, Mattlin hopes to reclaim an insultive word commonly used to isolate and shame others who identify as LGBTQ, and cultivate an accepting space where people can feel comfortable and included through a shared interest in horticulture and plant care.
Liza Thuy Nguyen serves as the 2023 American Farmland Trust Agriculture Communications Intern at AGDAILY, with a focus on helping to amplify diversity and minority voices in agriculture. Liza is originally from Anaheim, California, and attended the University of California, Davis, as a first-generation college student. She received a bachelor’s degree in genetics and genomics and went on to earn a master’s in horticulture from Penn State.
