A 3D model produced by Christian Romero (MFA ’25) illustrates the metaphor of Greenhouse Studios students nurturing a project.
The Treehouse is the name that we’ve recently coined for our “think tank” of stunningly talented student researchers at Greenhouse Studios. Comprised of graduate & undergraduate employees who hail from a wide range of diverse backgrounds, their primary charge is to bring their whole selves to the table in pursuit of experiencing a truly life-transformative educational experience during their tenure in the studio.
While specific project work is often focused on promoting the image of Greenhouse Studios, the deeper purpose of The Treehouse is to facilitate a space where students can gain confidence in themselves while producing high-quality deliverables for their portfolios.
The name itself was generated by the students, as resonated with us as it perfectly embodies the way we feel when we gather. In The Treehouse, we are allowed a momentary escape from the stressors of our individual lives, and encouraged to dream about the possibilities before us with childlike wonder.
We begin the academic terms by establishing students’ personal & professional goals, and then we align projects and teams with their intended trajectories. Though I lead the group, it is important to me that this team is highly collaborative with a completely flat hierarchy. Therefore, we lay out all of the options on the table and (try to) I act more as a rudder than as a “boss.” Everyone has an equal voice, from the first-year undergraduate interactive media major to the seventh-year humanities PhD candidate.
Students have taken on significant & ambitious projects, such as a complete redesign of the Greenhouse Studios website, a refresh of the studio’s assets, robust social media campaigns, and successful fundraising efforts.
Discovering Student Trajectories
The key to the success of our students lies in understanding why they’ve come to Greenhouse Studios in the first place. Only then can we figure out how to give them the tools and opportunities they need to blossom. We spend the first few Treehouse meetings of each term just taking stock of where each individual has been, where they are now, and where think they want to be. What curiosities do you have? Are there specific skills you’d like to hone? Which past projects resonated with you the most? From there, we begin to identify the big-ticket items that need to be accomplished over the semester, and find ways to plug in each team member’s motivations and desires into the overall design of each project & initiative that we come up with.
A Foundation of Trust
To me, the most critical part of each agenda is the first bullet point: our “no B.S. check-in” (a ritual introduced by my colleague, Carly Wanner-Hyde – thanks Carly!). Each team member is invited to honestly answer the question, “How are you doing?” I feel that the the key to doing this effectively, as both a staff member and (hopefully!) a mentor, is to offer my own response first, and to let myself be appropriately transparent and vulnerable. This is a group that truly trusts each other, and it shows in the freedom with which they bring their most brilliant ideas to the table. This team has become a tight-knit group over the last few years, and our weekly meeting is easily the best part of my week!
A Brand That We’re Proud Of
There is no better feeling than when Greenhouse Studios students become what I like to call “true believers.” Not-so-humble brag: we have an insanely low rate of attrition, and our students almost always try to find ways to keep working with us after graduation when possible (oh, how I wish we could keep them!). The Greenhouse Studios wordmark symbolizes a place where individuals belong to something bigger than themselves, and can create outcomes that are greater than they had ever dreamed of. In The Treehouse, we channel that tremendous amount of buy-in into advancing the research of the studio that we all believe in. We revel in the successes of our alumni (Bri Ricciardone, Andrew Wolf, Luisa Fernanda Arrieta Fernandez, and Alyssa McDonald to name just a few), most significantly in the ways in which they bring our inclusive work culture into their own career environments.
Teamwork Makes the Dream Work
I know…[insert groan here]…but true-blue teamwork is the special sauce that makes The Treehouse such a success each semester. As we identify specific projects and tasks that we’re going to tackle–whether it be a social media campaign, an animation, or a blog post–students are given opportunities to act as project managers. The size and makeup of the team will depend on the scope of the project, but the majority of the teams are cross-disciplinary and given the freedom (and tools) to manage their own day-to-day strategies. Though I have an eye on each project and campaign, Treehouse collaborators are almost always the sole producers and creators, and they are given the latitude to show off 100% of their work in their own portfolios.
How do students become a part of the Greenhouse Studios team?
We take pride in the diversity of our students’ backgrounds, as they join us from a wide variety of geographic, academic, and philosophical backgrounds. We consistently welcome new graduate assistants each fall from the Digital media & Design MFA program and through the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences’ Graduate Student Assistantship to Support Diversity in Digital Humanities. Information on both of those positions can be found on our website’s “Join Us” page. We also advertise new undergraduate openings through the UConn student JobX portal, and will announce these positions through our social media channels. However, if you or someone you know is interested in being a member of the team, please do feel free to reach out to us at any time!