Emily Galloway, a sophomore at Piedmont Technical College majoring in horticulture technology, is this year’s Kevin Kehoe Leader of the Year Award recipient.
Previously, Galloway was a firefighter for four years. She says her start in the landscape industry was a byproduct of her firefighting career ending. Galloway sustained a severe shoulder injury during a downed firefighter simulation. She has had several surgeries trying to repair the 50% labrum tear, detached ligament and bone cyst.
Now, Galloway is the presidential ambassador for her college and president of the school’s horticulture club. She received her award at this year’s NCLC and shared some of her experience transitioning industries.
What was it like transitioning from being a firefighter to studying horticulture?
It was absolute hell because I did not want to leave firefighting. I still don’t want to leave firefighting because firefighting is my passion. It is my family’s career. I’m a fourth generation, and the third in my generation, to be a firefighter. So, to carry on that legacy is important. I knew that going into this career as a firefighter that a career-ending injury was common. Learning to love something else was not easy. My first semester was the loneliest that I’ve been. It was quite intimidating because everybody’s talking about plants and I still cannot keep a plant alive.
We all have strengths and weaknesses and that is a definite weakness of mine. I know the science; I just can’t remember the science when it’s in my own house. Watching some other students in my program as they are developing friendships and new connections over their love of plants, and I’m sitting in the corner going, ‘I don’t know what these plants are.’ At home, I struggled trying to learn it.
Trying to learn plants when I didn’t feel a connection to them was incredibly difficult. It was sheer determination to keep going and to rebuild some part of my life. Because staying at home was not an option for me, I turned the number of hours I used to work in the fire service into literally studying because I knew if I worked hard enough at it, I would eventually develop a love for it. I never expected the passion to come from it, but I knew that one day, I would at least like it enough to be tolerable.
Then I went to NCLC in 2023 and I realized that I have a love for horticulture. I started developing a passion for leadership, which was completely unexpected. I like working with people who are not plant people because I’m not a plant person and helping them understand some of the sciences behind just how to keep a plant healthy and quick little tips on, ‘Oh, you forget to water here. Let’s give you something that you can remember how to water,’ which is what I really liked doing.
What drove you to help the horticulture club become more engaging for students?
I realized that I was not the only student who wanted to garden and who wanted to at least have some sort of beautiful yard. As I was talking to other students, I realized that a lot of students went to plants as self-care, but they didn’t know a whole lot of information. If you Google anything about plants, you’re going to have lots of different opinions and most of them are not correct. So, having a horticulture program at our school, we have the ability to be a source for other students to gain that information, which is what I really latched on to. I took what I was hearing as a presidential ambassador and then had the leadership to do something about it.
How have you managed to balance your numerous extracurricular tasks along with maintaining a 4.0 GPA?
A lot of hours. I work about 60 hours a week, not the healthiest thing, but something that I absolutely love. At the beginning of the week, I figure out what is the most important task to do and that’s always going to be homework.
Once homework is completed, then I will weigh out the next options. Whether it’s doing something for the club, doing something for student life, I will also pick up some additional activities as the presidential ambassador. Then, I have to balance the honors program in with all of that because the honors program does have coursework required with it. It’s just a giant juggling match of what is the most important priority and having extra time built into the schedule for the unexpected things and being flexible.
How does this scholarship help you?
It is a tremendous help. Because my husband is a police officer, we knew that when I went back to school, I would not be working because I wanted to do things that most students can’t do. It would require me not to work because I have to have time to juggle all of the tasks. Having an additional scholarship just has made the day-to-day funds and financial requirements for education possible.
Are you familiar with Kevin Kehoe’s legacy?
I was a little bit familiar with who Kevin Kehoe was after the student luncheon in 2023. I learned more at the student luncheon in 2024. From what I know, he was an absolutely amazing man and all that he has given to students and to young leaders to continue has been absolutely amazing.
What does it mean to be named the Kevin Kehoe Student Leader of the Year scholarship?
It’s a hard title for me to comprehend that it’s something that I’ve earned, that the work that I’ve done has been worthy to carry on the Kevin Kehoe name. I was just going to school and I was just trying to help my little community, not realizing that it was that big of a deal. Then to realize, no, it really is that big of a deal. It makes being humble a little bit harder.
Now that I’m carrying the Kevin Kehoe legacy, I want to make sure that I am serving his name and his legacy the right way.
What do you plan to do after you graduate?
After I graduate from Piedmont Technical College, I’m going to go on to Lander University, which is also in Greenwood, South Carolina. I’m going to major in business with a concentration in management and marketing. I’m also going to minor in design. I want to go into the design-build world as a designer and then a project manager, working with teams of people. But being as artistic as a kindergartener, I realized that I need to know some of the principles behind what makes design to tie into my horticulture background and landscape design that I already do, just to make me a little bit more well-rounded. The overall goal is to be a solid leader.
My career as a firefighter was negatively impacted by not the best leadership and I want to take some of the power back and empower myself to be different. To have that positive impact on people and realize that the people who work with me and work under me, are people at the end of the day, who have real issues, who are juggling a whole lot of stuff. I want to give back to people because people have given to me.
This article was published in the July/August issue of the magazine. To read more stories from The Edge magazine, click here to subscribe to the digital edition.
