JAMESPEARSALL.COM

The Roots of My Story

From the mountains of Ecuador, to the suburbs of Tokyo, I've pursued my passion for orchids around the world, and ultimately to Palo Alto.

At Stanford, first as an undergraduate English major, and now as a graduate school candidate in Earth Systems, I've combined my love for both the written word and the natural world to cultivate the skills needed to succeed in a career in a major botanical garden/research institution worldwide (as long as they speak English, Spanish, or Japanese!)

The Keiki Years: From my first orchid to my first internship with world-renowned Ecaugenera, in Ecuador

From my very first orchid as a 13-year-old in 2015, I became obsessed with orchids. I soon gained field, greenhouse, and lab experience working alongside mentors while interning at Ecuagenera Nursery in Ecuador. I learned about all stages of orchid cultivation, commercial greenhouse work, retail store practices, and laboratory lessons in micropropagation. I also went orchid hunting on Amazonian and Sierra expeditions.

Living, and learning, with the land: Digging into the Earth Systems Graduate Program at Stanford

The O'Donohue Family Stanford Educational Farm, 2024, 2025. I worked as Student Farm Hand, doing harvesting, pest control, irrigation, sowing seeds, and weeding. I also mentored high school students through Stanford's Young Investigators program, overseeing their projects on Integrated Pest Management, nitrogen fixation, fertilization, pest control techniques and remote monitoring technologies. I also coordinated volunteers working at the Farm.