MEET DYLAN

HOMETOWN: SOUTHBURY, CT

PASSION: FILMMAKING

INNOVATIVE INITIATIVE: NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN INTERN

COLLEGE: YALE UNIVERSITY

New York Botanical Garden Scientist Dr. Andrew Henderson is one of the world’s foremost authorities in palms, having spent the last 12 years studying them in Vietnam. Through more than a dozen research trips to the country, Dr. Henderson has collected more than 900 palm specimens, and countless hours of Go-Pro camera footage. As an NYBG summer intern, Dylan turned that footage into a short educational film. “It was definitely an incredible opportunity. There were probably 40 NYBG summer interns, but only two of us—the other also a Taft student—were in high school. The rest were in college, graduate school, or doing postdoctoral research,” says Dylan, who produced his first full-length movie at age 12. Dr. Henderson’s research received attention—and funding— from sources as impressive and diverse as the Fulbright Scholar Program, the National Science Foundation, the National Geographic Society, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the International Palm Society, which funded a trip along the Ho Chi Minh Highway that lies at the heart of Dylan’s work. “Throughout much of Dr. Henderson’s journey, he was looking for one particular plant species. He actually found it near the end of the trip. It was pretty incredible to watch that happen, and to share that moment on film.”