Announcing the 2025 LAF Olmsted Scholars

The Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF) is pleased to recognize 91 exceptional student leaders, including the two national winners and six finalists.

Named for Frederick Law Olmsted, the LAF Olmsted Scholars Program is the premier leadership recognition program for landscape architecture students. Now in its 18th year, the program honors students who are using ideas, influence, communication, service, and leadership to advance sustainable design and foster human and societal benefits. 

The program recognizes one outstanding student from each accredited landscape architecture program in the U.S. and Canada. This year, 53 graduate and 38 undergraduate students were nominated by their faculty for their exceptional leadership potential. These students earn the designation of 2025 LAF Olmsted Scholar and join a community of 1,254 LAF Olmsted Scholars named since the program’s inception in 2008. 

From the nominees, two independent juries selected the graduate and undergraduate national award winners and finalists, who receive financial awards and additional recognition. Students are both honored for past achievements and recognized for their future potential to influence the landscape architecture discipline.

2025 National Olmsted Scholars

Issam Azzam, a master's student at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, is the graduate 2025 National Olmsted Scholar and recipient of the $25,000 prize. With family roots in the Faiyum Oasis in Egypt and a background in desert ecology, Issam has seen the challenges oasis communities in the Sahara face as a result of climate change and resource exploitation. Building from his past fieldwork and relationships, he plans to use the award to expand ecological monitoring and socio-cultural documentation and create a platform for knowledge exchange among oasis communities. He aims to highlight that oases can be sustainable blueprints for the future and increase the role of landscape architecture in the critical dialogue on arid landscapes worldwide.

Olive Tang, a student at the University of California, Davis, is the undergraduate 2025 National Olmsted Scholar and recipient of the $15,000 prize. She is interested in Privately Owned Public Open Spaces (POPOS)—spaces privately owned and maintained but open to the public in exchange for zoning concessions. As municipal and federal funding declines, she sees the potential of POPOS but is concerned that their tighter restrictions and security measures can be exclusionary. Olive plans to use her award to observe POPOS in San Francisco and develop recommendations for their design and management to be more equitable and welcoming. Through this collaborative effort, she seeks to ensure that this increasingly common form of "public" open space is truly serving the public.

National Olmsted Scholar Finalists

The three graduate finalists (top row) each receive a $5,000 award, and the three undergraduate finalists (bottom row) each receive a $3,000 award.

2025 LAF Olmsted Scholars (Graduate)

In addition to the winner and finalists, the graduate nominees from each university are recognized as 2025 LAF Olmsted Scholars, which denotes distinguished student leadership in landscape architecture.

First row: Bridgette Badowich, University of Calgary | Addie Bagot, Louisiana State University | Kate Broussard, The Ohio State University | Rachel Carr, University of Cincinnati | Anne Coke, Florida International University | Jason Condit, University of Minnesota | Christina Contreras, University of Michigan | Dustin Del Moro, University of Tennessee | Sarah Deratnay, University of Guelph | Emma Dicks, University of Manitoba

Second row: Amanda Esparza, University of Texas at Arlington | Joyce Fong, University of Virginia | Nicki Fry, University of Texas at Austin | Steven Garcia, University of Oregon | Laura Gilkey, Rutgers University | Vidhan Goel, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign | Carrie Gotwals, University of Massachusetts Amherst | Marc Grossberg, University of Florida | Jesse Horning, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry | Marius Igitangaza Ngabo, Ball State University

Third row: Dushawn John, Arizona State University | Mina Kargari Rezapour, West Virginia University | Elliott Kenney, University of Maryland | Jordan Livingston, Clemson University | Miles Loring-Thomas, Morgan State University | Jessica Lund, Cal Poly Pomona | Morgan Mackey, Kent State University | George McCracken, City College of New York | Holden McCullough, University of Georgia | Fatemeh Zahra Momeni Afjedi, University of Oklahoma

Fourth row: Ruth Muniz, Illinois Institute of Technology | Julia Nunn, University of Arizona | Saw Yu Nwe, University of Pennsylvania | Kyle Odgers, Kansas State University | Aashka Patel, Cornell University | Tyler Powers, Iowa State University | Sarah Pritchard, Virginia Tech | Janhavi Rajwade, The Pennsylvania State University | Fariha Rashid, Texas Tech University | Mark Reid, University of Southern California

Fifth row: Jade Rhodes, University of Hawaii at Manoa | Isabelle Rocca, Temple University | Charlotte Rose, University of Colorado Denver | Orly Sacke, University of Toronto | Kaitlin Sampson, Washington University in St Louis | Kelby Stallings, North Carolina State University | Emily Stuart, University of Idaho | Na Wang, Texas A&M University | Christopher Wilson, Utah State University

2025 LAF Olmsted Scholars (Undergraduate)

In addition to the winner and finalists, the undergraduate nominees from each university are recognized as 2025 LAF Olmsted Scholars, which denotes distinguished student leadership in landscape architecture.

First row: Martha Afflu, Rutgers University | Braya Badger, Ball State University | Talia Brinker, University of Delaware | Anissa Cantu, Texas Tech University | Ana Cervantes, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign | Emma Daniel, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo | Grace Densham, Michigan State University | Izabella Dyer, University of Massachusetts Amherst | Megan Forbes, Washington State University | Morgan Haak, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Second row: Nolan Hovland, Iowa State University |  Julia Jackson, Thomas Jefferson University | Lauren Kasel, Texas A&M University | Aisha Malik, University of Rhode Island | Misa Marin, The Pennsylvania State University | Hadley Masiel, University of Washington | Edgar Mejia, Cal Poly Pomona | Sydney Milligan, Louisiana State University | Erik Moses, West Virginia University | Margaret Murphy, Temple University

Third row: Clare O'Brien, Purdue University | Mia Owen, University of Oregon | Kayla Payne, University of Kentucky | Jacob Peach, University of Georgia | Alex Pomeroy, Virginia Tech | Jordi Prieto, Cornell University | Oliver Right, University of Arkansas | Parker Smith, North Carolina A&T State University | Sarah Spilinek, University of Nebraska- Lincoln | Kayla Villareal, University of Connecticut

Fourth row: Hirone Warner, Utah State University | Cate Williams, Clemson University | Jiaxin Catherine Yan, University of Guelph | Cecilia Zajac, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry 

Thank you to our sponsors

Coldspring, Design Workshop, EDSA, Field Operations, Hart Howerton, HOK, IRONSMITH, LandDesign, OJB, OLIN, Sasaki, Stantec, SWA, Victor Stanley, Steven G. King, FASLA, and Bill and Kathy Main, Hon. ASLA.

Thank you to our 2025 juries

The jurors for the graduate awards were:

• Alma Du Solier, Studio Director, Hood Design Studio/President, Landscape Architecture Foundation 
• Brad McCauley, Managing Principal, site design group, ltd/President-Elect, American Society of Landscape Architects
• Roana Tirado, Senior Associate and Project Manager, HOK
• Tyler Wallace, Vice President, EDSA
• Dominic Fischer, Associate Professor and Chair of Landscape Architecture, North Dakota State University
• Caleb Melchior, Landscape Architect and Project Manager, Coastal Vista Design
• Emma Skalka, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Victor Stanley
• Nina Weithorn, Landscape Designer, Terremoto Design/2024 LAF National Olmsted Scholar (Graduate)

The jurors for the undergraduate awards were:

• Alexa Bush, Director of Planning, City of Detroit/President-Elect, Landscape Architecture Foundation 
• SuLin Kotowicz, Senior Landscape Architect, VIRIDIS Design Group/Immediate Past President, American Society of Landscape Architects
• Kevin Robishaw, Designer, SWA
• Andrew Schmidt, Principal, LandDesign
• Allyce Hargrove, Program Head and Clinical Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture, Urban Design and Environmental Design, Arizona State University
• Eric Arneson, Partner, Topophyla
• Julia Li, MLA Candidate, The Pennsylvania State University/2024 National Olmsted Scholar (Undergraduate)