“As I searched for a graduate school, I was attracted to the School of Natural Resources and Environment because its three-year Landscape Architecture field of study is an integral part of a larger, interdisciplinary school of the environment with terrestrial and marine ecologists, policymakers and specialists in sustainable development and environmental justice. The school’s focus on real science as it relates to professional practice in design and development assured me I would find the challenges I sought in ecological science, as well as design and site analysis.
“The school’s small, cohesive size offered opportunities to meet and work with faculty across many disciplines. Since beginning my MLA studies, I have assisted Professor Joan Nassauer with landscape ecology issues, including work related to hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico and farmer conservation behaviors.
“A Brownfield redevelopment seminar enabled me to work collaboratively with other students from business, urban planning and art on creative solutions for future Brownfield redevelopment, which we presented to the Environmental Protection Agency. This served as a springboard for a research proposal I developed to investigate Brownfield redevelopment and remediation practices in Bangkok, Thailand. Aided by international research grants from the school and the University’s Rackham Graduate School, I expanded my summer travels to include New Zealand, where I studied the landscape ecology and planning issues facing that nation and interacted with its landscape architecture and planning community through a visit with Boffa Miskell Ltd.
“After I finish my degree, I hope to continue writing about the work being done by the profession while practicing landscape architecture and planning, with a focus on ecologically sensitive design and holistic sustainable development.”