Becca Honeyball plans to connect conversation and community building
Becca Honeyball, who grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, will be graduating this spring with a PhD in horticulture. In this Q&A, she talks about her extensive involvement in student organizations, her experience in founding Mentorship Opportunities in Science and Agriculture (MOSAIC), and her research in wild bogs. She plans to work in the field of conversation and community building.
Why did you choose your major? What was the most interesting or the coolest thing you learned?
When I first started in horticulture, I never expected to find myself conducting research in microbial ecology. In 2022, I had the opportunity to lead a sampling team to wild bogs all over northern Wisconsin, collecting cranberry roots to study their microbiome dynamics. One of the coolest things I learned from these bogs is the prevalence of carnivorous plants in our state. Sundews and pitcher plants abound, intermingling with sedges, leatherleaf, bog laurel, cotton grasses, and more, all sporadically nestled in hummocks of sphagnum moss. Positively rad.
What student organizations, groups, and other activities were you involved in?
Since joining the Horticulture EDC in 2020, I’ve stayed active in CALS community life. I served as Journal Club Chair for the Plant Science Graduate Student Council (2021), am an active member of the PAS EDC, and over the years, organized several iterations of weekly graduate student community lunches. I also started an informal Moore Hall Tea Club with like minded friends, and last spring started hosting monthly Queer Qoffee Hours for LGBTQ+ colleagues on West Campus. I’ve also helped advocate for graduate student voting rights in two departments, contributing to bylaw writing and revisions. Mentorship has been a core part of my time here. As a founding admin of Mentorship Opportunities in Science and Agriculture (MOSAIC), I helped organize community events from bowling nights and cultural food exchanges to major speaker panels, including Planting Seeds (2022) and our magnum opus, Beyond the Table: Food Justice, Food Science, & Food Policy (2023). I’ve also supported over a dozen undergrads and recent grads from diverse majors, guided fellow grad students through coursework, research, and professional challenges, and served on a CALS new faculty onboarding panel, helping to co-write a mentorship guide in 2024.
What are your future academic and/or career plans, short-term and long-term?
Ultimately, I see myself at the intersection of conservation and community building. We’ll see what shape that career path takes, but I’m certain it won’t be boring.
What were the most valuable and/or meaningful experiences you had in CALS?
Learning how to navigate and participate in UW–Madison’s ideal of Shared Governance was a turning point. Understanding how students, staff, and faculty can collaboratively shape university policy gave me a much deeper sense of agency within such a massive institution.
When you think about your time here as a student, what are you proud of?
I’m most proud of my efforts to build grad student community. At the end of the day, above my dissertation or any scholarships, building MOSAIC alongside my best friends was what kept everything together. MOSAIC has given so many of us a true home on this campus and brought me to my current understanding of what it means to be in community. It inspired the way I run Queer Qoffee, and more broadly, my experience with MOSAIC informs how I interact with the world. I have so much love for my fellow admin, organizers, and for all our community members.
Do you have any advice you’d like to share with CALS students?
Get involved in your grad groups and department committees. Learn who and where the resources are, and what’s missing, so you can advocate effectively. (Also, bring baked goods to your administrators. They deserve it.)
What do you like most about being a CALS student?
I’ve always felt thoroughly supported by CALS’ student-facing admin, especially Liza Chang and the team from the ODEI. Tom Browne, Louis Macias, Rosie Gittens, and Mandy Moi consistently made me feel seen and heard, which can be a rare and powerful thing.
If you had to eat one Babcock ice cream flavor for the rest of your life, what would it be and why?
Thanks A Latte. Coffee, cookies, and peanut butter!? Bring it back. Please.
What’s your favorite thing about the city of Madison?
My favorite thing about Madison is all the ways we find to bring people together in environmentalism. Our proximity to lakes, bike paths, and community gardens, not to mention the singular gift that is the ESSA community listserv, have made this place into something truly special.