At the intersection of ethnography and botany lies ethnobotany — the study of how different cultures work with plants. Megan Aljian, a graduating senior studying biological and agricultural engineering with minors in biology and plant biology, has a strong passion for ethnobotany and medicinal uses of plants.

While searching for colleges, she discovered that NC State was a top-three university for plant biology and one of the few universities where undergraduates can concentrate in ethnobotany. As if this were not enough reason to love NC State, the positivity from current students she encountered was radiant and sealed the deal.

An active member of the pack

When she got on campus her freshman year, Megan immediately got involved. In her first year, she was a research assistant, a part of the rowing club and joined the Caldwell Fellows program. As a sophomore, she became a resident advisor and remained in that role for the rest of her college years. Megan also served as a student senator, studied abroad twice and learned to rock climb at Carmichael gym. 

During this time, Megan was also a summer camp counselor in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina. With an avid interest in plants and their traditional uses, she created a bug-bite relief remedy using oak leaves that became incredibly popular at the camp. 

An entrepreneurial itch

While at NC State, Megan found a tangential interest in entrepreneurship. Over the summer of 2025, people kept asking Megan for refills of her mysterious dark green bug-bite relief liquid. People loved the product and encouraged her to look into selling it. 

By fall 2025, she was on NC State Innovation and Entrepreneurship’s email list. In one email, Megan saw that the Albright Entrepreneurship Garage was hosting an open house at the start of the semester. Slightly terrified to go, but motivated by her belief that the worst case was never knowing what it could become, Megan walked in the door and pitched her idea to the staff. 

Launching Forest Found

After the open house, Megan joined LaunchPad — a startup incubator program run by Innovation and Entrepreneurship. “LaunchPad gave me a community interested in developing new ideas and held me accountable as I started Forest Found, which was what I needed most,” said Megan. Being in this program gave her the community and resources to make it feel possible to launch a company. 

As she wrapped up her first semester in LaunchPad, Megan applied to compete in the N.C. Plant Sciences Initiative startup competition, Seed2Grow. This became a pivotal moment in Megan’s entrepreneurial journey.

“I thought that I got into Seed2Grow just to break up the highly technical ag-tech pitches. Essentially, I thought I was the half-time show and was just grateful to be there for the experience. No one was more shocked than me when I won,” said Megan, “That was the first moment that I really started to think I could play in this league.”

Cultivating a successful future

After graduation, Megan plans to continue developing Forest Found while also working full-time as a Stream Restoration Engineer. She is excited for both of these paths as she gains experience and traction. 

“The lessons that I learned through working on Forest Found definitely leak into the rest of my life. I am more willing to take risks and recommend changes, because I am more comfortable failing now. I am a lot less scared to be judged or told no, which are definitely changes that I carry with me.”

Reflecting on growth

When asked about advice she would have given her freshman self, Megan looked back at her time at NC State. She recognized that her younger self needed to live more to truly understand the advice she had. Megan said, “I would tell her: you are a lot. And that is great. Never try to make yourself less for other people. You need you: every epic, unusual and unique part of you. Be too much, unrepentantly.”