Kiki Fontenot: A Path Paved with Plants
Becoming a horticulturist was not Kiki Fontenot’s plan when she first arrived at LSU. As an undergraduate, she decided to major in psychology. But her career aspirations began to shift after a friend told her about a horticulture class that allowed students to have their own garden plots.
Her family had kept a small backyard garden when she was growing up in Fort Worth, Texas, and as a high schooler, she had a summer job at a plant nursery. Fontenot enrolled in the course, eager to be around plants again.
“That was my only purpose for it,” she said. “But when I took that class, I fell in love, and I started taking more of the horticulture classes.”
That set Fontenot on a path that would lead to her earning master’s and doctoral degrees in horticulture and, ultimately, working for the LSU AgCenter.