The 1984 -1985 Louise Young herbarium collection box has sat untouched for 40 years in the dry collection storage section of UConn’s George Safford Torrey Herbarium. Like much backlog material, it had been lost in the endless stream of projects that continuously cycle through the herbarium. I received this box to process independently after over a year of receiving training and mentorship as an undergraduate curatorial assistant. Louise Young had some of the best quality specimens that I have seen collected during this time. Each of the 175 specimens perfectly fits the standard herbarium sheet size, displays useful plant traits, and comes with complete label data. However, her specimens presented a new challenge: associating 12 zip lock bags of underground root structures with their aboveground shoots. Additionally, most mounted specimens were on non-archival acidic paper, so I determined whether they fit criteria for remounting onto archival-grade sheets. I practiced sewing bulkier specimens to sheets, assessed both paper and specimen quality, transferred specimens onto archival sheets, created high-resolution images, and entered label data into a relational database (BG-BASE). Louise Young’s collection now has potential to aid the scientific community by being accessible to anyone online and providing valuable spatial, temporal, and phenotypic data on a wide range of plants.  This poster provides a student perspective on the importance of involving undergraduate students at an advanced level within this crucial backbone of botanical science. Students, mentors, and collections benefit greatly from the development of strong student-mentor connections. Using the Louise Young box as an exemplar, this project explores student achievements from acquiring skills such as data management, careful handling of specimens, and confidence in making independent choices on the best route for specimen curation. In addition, it showcases the advantages for mentors and collections of training self-sufficient student assistants, particularly at the undergraduate level or younger, who may pursue careers as the next generation of herbarium curators.