Expressing creativity through nature

Floral Design Club helps students learn how to make their own flower arrangements

By California State University, Bakersfield

March 21^st, 2025

As a teen, biology major Marcos Ramirez would often see his sister making floral arrangements for friends and family. After asking her one day to teach him how to make one, Ramirez soon found himself with a new hobby.

“I like to try new things. I really enjoy trying to find patterns and colors that work with each other and experimenting with different flower sizes,” he said. “The biologist in me also likes to learn about flowers and understand their anatomy a little more.”

While Ramirez enjoyed the creative process of putting together floral arrangements, he found that the prohibitive cost of flowers made it challenging to make as many as he would like.

After coming to CSUB, several friends began urging Ramirez to start a student club after mentioning he had experience with and a passion for floral design. Although he had never been part of a club on campus before, let alone started one, Ramirez was excited by the challenge and the opportunity to share his hobby with other students.

Ramirez gathered a few other students and formed the Floral Design Club last spring. The club is focused on giving members the opportunity to learn how to put together their own floral arrangements, which are usually featured at events held by other clubs and organizations on campus. More than 50 students are actively involved in the club.

“We wanted to create this club so students could make the arrangements themselves, make them cheaper and to their own tastes,” Ramirez said. “Flowers can be very expensive, so we wanted to be able to offer free flowers and for our members to have a safe space to create arrangements.”

Most of the flowers the club uses are paid for through the funding it receives from Associated Students Inc. The organizations and clubs they partner with will also sometimes chip in to cover expenses.

Bee Nava — who is double-majoring in studio art and child, adolescent and family studies — joined the Floral Design Club as the outreach coordinator. Having gotten a lot of networking experience on campus as a resident assistant, she thought she would be a good fit for the role, even though she had no prior experience with floral design.

“Everything I know I learned from Marcos,” she said. “I love to learn new art forms. I’ve tried all sorts of mediums, but when Marcos first showed me how to do bouquets, I was like ‘Oh this is really nice.’ I believe floral design is a really nice art form.”

Nava appreciates being able to have control over her arrangements and that they don’t have to conform to professional standards.

“When I’m just doing it by myself, I can make it how I want it. It doesn’t have to be perfect,” she said. “It’s very restrictive in the floral industry, where it has to look a certain way.”

Nava said she’s enjoyed her experience in the Floral Design Club, especially when it comes to interacting with her fellow students and encouraging them to join the club.

“I’ve talked to people who never thought they would be doing this, that flowers were out of their comfort zone,” she said.

One of the other key founding officers of the Floral Design Club is human biology major Nathan Barron, who serves as the treasurer. While he had some prior experience with floral arrangements, as he would sometimes help his parents with their party rental business, Barron found he still had a lot to learn about floral design.

“It was never something that interested me much before this club,” he said. “Seeing Marcos make them and learning from him, it’s something I’ve grown to appreciate more.”

Barron recalls how proud he was when he was able to finish his first arrangement after joining the club.

“When I finished my own bouquet, I remember seeing the final product and thinking ‘Wow, I put this together myself,’” he said. “Seeing other people have that same feeling was great. That really got me invested in the club.”

Ramirez said most of the members have little to no experience with doing floral arrangements when they first join and are often just looking for a new hobby.

“It’s a fun thing to do after a long, stressful day on campus,” he said. “People really enjoy working with flowers. It’s not something a lot of them have access to, so being able to make it free for students is pretty awesome.”

Assistant Professor of Biology Dr. Lucas Hall, who serves as the club’s faculty advisor, said he is proud of what the students have accomplished and what they have been able to offer not only the members themselves but also the campus community as a whole.

“This club is led by a responsible and capable president, and he has a strong supporting cast to carry their collective goals to fruition,” he said. “The Floral Design Club is serving a unique purpose for students at CSUB by helping them find a community of individuals that enjoy creating floral designs that bring joy to themselves and others.”

'Building a community'

Computer engineering and computer science double-major Francisco Andrade joined the Floral Design Club last year after being encouraged to attend a meeting by Nava, who he worked with in Student Housing.

“It was an opportunity for me to step out of my comfort zone but also support a friend,” he said. “It was something completely new to me, so it’s been a great learning experience. Everyone is very welcoming, very open to ideas. Getting to learn how to make the arrangements is something I’m very proud of.”

Fellow member Rigoberto Gutierrez joined shortly after the Floral Design Club was created. He learned about it during a club fair and said it stood out among the many clubs that participated.

“I’ve always really liked plants and flowers, so I wanted to join up with them,” he said. “I’ve really enjoyed the process of making the arrangements and trying to figure out what makes sense to put together. It’s a stress-reliever for me.”

Over the past year, Gutierrez believes his design skills have greatly improved and is proud of the arrangements he’s been able to make. One of his favorites was for a Halloween-themed event last fall in partnership with Student Housing where club members got to make flower centerpieces out of pumpkins.

“I like having the opportunity to be part of campus events and getting to know the other students,” he said. “We’re building a community with the people who are part of the club.”

Ramirez said he’s been impressed by how quickly students are learning how to make floral arrangements and seeing how far they’ve come during their time in the club.

“A lot of the members we started with had never done it before and now they’re some of the most creative people I’ve seen. They’re not scared to try new things,” he said.

Nava also appreciates the impact the club has had on its members and said it’s “nice to see how much people can grow with our club, how creative they can be. They’re so eager to be involved.”

It hasn’t just been the members that have grown. The Floral Design Club has had its own share of growth over the past year, having started with just a couple events and about a dozen members.

The officers often find themselves inundated with floral arrangement requests for campus events and must be pickier than they’d like to be about what to devote the club’s limited resources to.

“Sometimes we’ve underestimated the amount of people coming to events and we weren’t sure if we would have enough flowers,” Barron said. “We have to make sure we have enough before we commit to anything.”

While managing the logistics of the club can be a challenge, Ramirez said it’s rewarding to see how people respond to their arrangements.

“The best part is seeing the smiles. People really do like flowers,” he said. “Sometimes I forget how little people receive flowers, so being able to give them a flower or have an event where they can come and get flowers is really nice. Hopefully our members are able to hand them out to people they care about and keep spreading that happiness we have here with this club.”

Nava recalled one time when she was helping the club hand out some flowers and the interaction she had with one of the students who walked by.

“There was this one girl who was having a really bad day, although I didn’t know that at the time,” she said. “I stopped her and said ‘Hey, would you like some flowers?’ I gave her a handful of them and the way her face lit up when she received the flowers was amazing. It made me stop to think that a lot of people don’t get flowers very often. I just enjoy seeing people happy, so being able to contribute to that is a good feeling.”

Ramirez, Nava and Barron all have at least one more year at CSUB and plan to continue leading the Floral Design Club. They hope to continue expanding the opportunities the club can provide students, such as arranging an off-campus trip for students to experience floral design on a larger scale.

They are all grateful for the personal growth and leadership opportunities that the club has given them.

“Without this club, I probably wouldn’t be as involved as I am on campus,” Ramirez said. “My first few years here, I didn’t really have friends. I didn’t really talk to people. This club has pulled me out of my shell and now I’m friends with a lot of people through this club.”

Nava said clubs are essential because of the opportunity they provide students to share their interests and get more involved on campus.

“I feel like our club is a safe space for a lot of people. It helps people forget about what’s going on in their life, where they can just focus on flowers for 30 minutes,” she said. “I’m more confident with myself now. I think it’s also really helped me be a better person.”

Barron encourages all CSUB students to try out a club that interests them, even if it’s something they have little or no prior experience with.

“There are lot of students who come to campus, go to their classes and head home. They’re really missing out on the full picture of CSUB and everything it has to offer,” he said. “Clubs are that first stepping stone. It opens you up to a lot more opportunities here.”