LAF Ignite Expands to Indigenous Students
In 2022, the Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF) launched LAF Ignite, a multi-year program for Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) landscape architecture students to help them overcome prevalent barriers during the period between entering college and entering the workforce. Ignite provides participants with an annual $10,000 scholarship, paid summer internships, and access to mentors throughout their educational path.
The program was designed to expand over time, initially focusing on Black/African American students, which allowed LAF to establish a strong shared‑identity community, learn from their experiences, and create targeted supports that reflect the challenges and opportunities they identified. From the inaugural cohort of four students, the program has grown to serve 10-15 participants each year.
With this solid foundation, the LAF Ignite program will be open to Indigenous students starting with the 2026-27 cycle. To be eligible, students must: (1) identify as Indigenous to the United States, Canada, or Mexico with an ancestral connection to the territory and to their ancestral Indigenous community and (2) be a citizen of the U.S. or Canada, a lawful permanent resident of the U.S. or Canada, or a current U.S. Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program recipient.
The LAF Ignite program continues to be open to Black/African American students, defined as: citizens of the U.S. with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa, whose families have lived in the U.S. for generations, and are often descendants of formerly enslaved people.
Applications will open March 31 and be due May 18 for the fifth cycle of the program, which starts in September 2026.
“We are thrilled to be able to move the LAF Ignite program into this next phase,” said Rachel Booher, Deputy Director of LAF, who led the process working with the LAF DEI Committee and members of the Indigenous Collective Group. “With LAF Ignite, we continue to be deliberate and committed to a process for expanding the program that allows for learning, discussion, and building with intention and integrity. A process that understands and respects the role that LAF has in supporting the next generation.”
Over the course of two years, LAF worked diligently to prepare and plan for this expansion with care to ensure that the program has the structure, cultural understanding and representation, and lived experience to support the needs of different identities. LAF recognizes and shares its deep gratitude to the members of the Indigenous Collective Group (ICG) — a network of Indigenous landscape architects, designers, and allies dedicated to weaving Indigenous voices, knowledge, and lifeways into the field of landscape architecture — who have helped to inform and support this expansion through their time, dedication, sharing of knowledge, and by providing insights for program opportunities.
As the program continues to build and is expanded to other students of color in future years, LAF will continue this process by seeking out partners and landscape architects from specific racial/ethnic groups to more fully understand and address the particular barriers and provide focused opportunities for each community.
