Cal Poly students brought the mythic Loch Ness monster out of the depths to join some land-dwelling friends in “Nessie’s Lakeside Laughs,” the Cal Poly universities Rose Float team’s 2025 entry for the 136th Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade on Jan. 1, winning the Leishman Public Spirit Award. Cal Poly and California State Polytechnic University in Pomona team up for the Pasadena classic every year. This year, two CAFES students served on the team: third-year plant science major Mia Brown as the greenhouse manager and second-year plant science major Haley Kost as the assistant decorations chair.

Cal Poly’s 2024-25 team of 27 students is a multidisciplinary group; this year representing five of the university’s six colleges, who were assisted by scores of student volunteers at weekend workshops in the summer and fall. “I have been fortunate enough to work on two past floats,” Brown said. “This is my second year in leadership as the greenhouse manager.” Brown plans to pursue a doctorate in plant science or horticulture. “With that, I ultimately want to teach about plants and spend the rest of my life studying and learning about them,” she said.

Kost joined the program for the 2023 float, ‘Road to Reclamation,’ as a participant in the team’s Decoration Department, and for this past year’s ‘Shock N’ Roll,’ was the flower fields manager. “I hope that the skills I learn while in the program will help me in my future career in landscape design with native plants.”