Eight Stuckeman School students earn landscape architecture awards

UNIVERSTY PARK, Pa. — Eight current and recently-graduated Stuckeman School students from the Department of Landscape Architecture have received honors for their work through the American Society of Landscape Architects' (ASLA) Student Awards program. Grace McNeill, Lauren Taylor and Jake Tiernan, each of whom graduated in May from the top-ranked professional bachelor of landscape architecture program, along with master of landscape architecture student Lara Garcia, earned the Honor Award, which is considered the highest honor in the ASLA program. Recent undergraduate alumna Madison Borsos, current undergraduate students Minh Anh Kieu and Zheming Zhang, and graduate student Fahimeh Farhadi each earned a Merit Award. "We are extremely proud of these scholars as they exemplify the very best students in our B.L.A. and M.L.A. programs,” said Andy Cole, associate professor and interim head of the Department of Landscape Architecture. “Faculty members nominate these students, but a group of professional practitioners evaluate their work and make the final decisions. To be presented the ASLA Honor Award or the ASLA Merit Award is, without question, a lifelong honor." ASLA’s Student Honor and Merit Award program is designed to be a collaborative effort between various ASLA chapters and landscape architecture programs throughout the country. ASLA’s guidelines specify that the awards recognize students’ academic achievement, design competence and interpersonal skills through a body of their design work. Award nominees must be “truly outstanding” in their program and have demonstrated the highest level of academic scholarship and accomplishments in skills such as: responsiveness and willingness to work with others, self-motivation and responsibility, design abilities, exploration, discovery, synthesis and representation of landscape architecture design. The ASLA is the professional association for landscape architects in the United States and represents more than 15,000 members who support the development of research and continuing initiatives that enable practitioners to address the evolving challenges of landscape architectural practice. The organization’s mission is to advance landscape architecture through advocacy, communication, education and fellowship. For more Stuckeman School news, follow us on Twitter @StuckemanNews.