LAF Ignite Awardees

Sariyah Benoit graduated from Emory University with a BA in African American Studies and is currently a landscape architecture student at University of California, Berkeley. Her research interests include biomimicry for remediation in urban environments, the unequal distribution of green spaces in urban areas, and social-emotional cartography. Her art, designs, and community workshops explore the intersection of communal spaces, cultural aesthetics, and equity in human-ecological interactions in coastal urban spaces. With a keen interest in Black spatial politics, embodied memory, and de-neocolonial design, Sariyah examines contemporary urban issues through a Black feminist lens. As an artist and designer, she incorporates DIY sustainable art supplies and Black and Indigenous design motifs into her practice. 

Gabriella Bishop is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture at North Carolina A&T State University. She is deeply passionate about how thoughtful design of outdoor spaces can transform communities and enhance environmental well-being. Her future plans include pursuing a master's degree in a related design field, ultimately aiming to contribute to sustainable and inclusive urban and natural development projects. Outside of her studies, Gabriella enjoys staying active with Pilates and is an avid music lover, finding inspiration and relaxation in both.

Drea Blackburn is deeply motivated to transform our current food system into one that is equitable, sustainable, and climate-resilient. They hope to use their landscape architecture skillset  to support and amplify the ongoing work being done by farmers, non-profits, and grassroots leaders who are actively pushing for a better food system. Creating healing and restorative agricultural spaces, addressing economic development in rural areas, and exploring conservation and climate adaptation strategies are core factors that drive their work. Ultimately, Drea is excited to explore how landscape architecture can support resilient food systems, meaningfully collaborate with communities, and honor the land and people who sustain us. 

Born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised in Crozet, Virginia, Jeida hold a BS in Architecture from the University of Virginia and is pursuing a Master of Landscape Architecture there. Her past research focused on maintaining human and non-human relationships through sound and architecture, as well as celebrating history and memory embedded in the landscape. She hopes to continue this research with a new landscape perspective, incorporating ideas such as biophilic design and therapeutic landscapes. Outside of school, Jeida enjoys building and creating Lego sets and spending time outside with her dog. 

Zakai Drew is interested in the connection between the built environment and psychological health. He loves music, photography, animals, and nature, and landscape architecture felt like a way for him to channel all of his passions. He hopes to find his  own creative language, design environments that positively affect the minds of people, and explore how landscape architecture can be used to point out social injustices. He is also super passionate about studying landscape architecture’s relation to fiction. 

Before beginning her formal studies in landscape architecture, Aisha Estrada found early inspiration at Homeboy Industries, where she first explored her passion for design and community-building. This formative experience helped shape her path into the field of landscape architecture. As an intern at ONYX, Aisha has developed her technical skills by working closely with firm leadership and contributing to ADA-focused projects using Revit. She approaches both her academic and professional journey with a mindset of growth, seeing every opportunity as a chance to gain valuable experience — in architecture and in life.

Originally from Tulsa, Frank Hicks's journey into landscape architecture was shaped by his experiences as a young Black boy witnessing the environmental inequities in his community. He brings a deep love for nature and a strong commitment to social equity into his practice. Frank's future goals include working on community-driven design projects that promote ecological restoration and inclusive public spaces. He is especially passionate about revitalizing underinvested neighborhoods and incorporating native landscapes into urban environments. Outside of academics, he enjoys cooking, traveling, and spending time with Angel and Phillip, his pet cockatiels. 

Ezra wants to use the built environment to promote sustainable and reciprocal relationships between communities and the environment. She also wants to design spaces that could be used for horticulture education and food production for local communities as a harm reduction strategy to address food deserts, while spurring community investment and emphasizing the importance of historic preservation. Ezra hopes to design spaces that uplift the community and contribute to the health and safety of a population and their environment.

Hailing from Chicago, Illinois, Jaliyah "Penny" Shepherd sees a growing need for well-designed green spaces in cities to enhance human well-being and our connection to the natural world. The healing power of nature has been transformative for Jaliyah and she wants to design spaces that can provide that same sense of peace and healing for others struggling with their mental health. Looking ahead, she plans to obtain a master's degree in construction management. Beyond academic pursuits, Jaliyah has channeled her design talents into a clothing brand called SARTORIAL PENNY, where she creates original fashion pieces. She also enjoys jamming on the guitar, building Legos, and staying connected to her spirituality.

Piper Thyden is a landscape architect student at Colorado State University. Passionate about a career in landscape architecture, she wants to create spaces that evoke emotions and a sense of closeness. Growing up in Orange County, California she experienced many of these spaces herself and realized how important thoughtful and natural spaces are in shaping the human experience. Her interests include accessibility, water and natural resource management, alternative uses for green spaces, and ecological restoration. Piper was recently elected ASLA Colorado Liaison for her Student Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects and is excited to facilitate this coming year's activities. In her free time, you’ll find her outdoors hiking, rock climbing, or paddle boarding with friends. While indoors you’ll find her testing out new recipes, crocheting, or curled up with a good book.

Zaria holds a BS in Environmental Science and Studies with a concentration in policy and management from Towson University. While she has an interdisciplinary background, her roots are heavily grounded in biology and ecology. Zaria's interests lie in equitable and sustainable development, green infrastructure, and environmental justice. She hopes to use landscape architecture as a tangible means to reshape spaces that have been unjustly stripped from BIPOC communities, rekindling their connection with green spaces. She wants to help mobilize efforts toward community land development without displacement, and advance the goals of zero waste. She is deeply committed to using design as a tool to bring about new urban landscapes in which underserved populations can access the wide variety of goods and spaces from which they have been historically barred.

Brendan holds an undergraduate degree in political science, with focuses in philosophy, pre-law, and global studies Before embarking on his graduate studies, Brendan worked as a Crime Policy Analyst at the University of Chicago Urban Labs for nearly three years. During this time, he contributed to projects at the intersection of crime and health policy. Brendan's academic and professional endeavors focus on how design interventions in vacant and blighted lots can positively impact underserved communities. His work integrates the principles of design with the social, cultural, and emotional needs of communities. Brendan envisions establishing his own design studio and think tank to innovate urban design strategies and develop public policy research. Beyond academics and profession, Brendan has a profound interest in various forms of design, including fashion, art, music-making, and film. He is actively working on the "Abolish Slavery" project, highlighting social oppression, racism, and discrimination through visual and sonic
representations.

Since he was young, Johnathan has had an interest in plants. However, a lack of green industry educational resources in school proved to be an obstacle to overcome. Johnathan learned to forge his own path, operating a landscaping business in high school and discovering his passion for design, advocacy, and outreach in the process. He nurtured his passion at Auburn University, where he completed a bachelor’s in Horticulture, Pre-Landscape Architecture. During this time, he served as an Auburn Ag Ambassador and as Vice-President of the Auburn Nursery and Landscape Association. As a rising 3rd-year graduate student at UT Arlington, Johnathan’s commitment to outreach has only increased. As Vice-President of the university’s Student Chapter ASLA, he aspires to implement new ways of engaging fellow students, youth, and the greater public with landscape architecture. He plans to explore and evaluate K-12 landscape architecture resources in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex for his master’s thesis.

Kareem is a Washington, D.C. native with an interest in exploring the intersection of mental health and landscape architecture, while seeing how we can save our world with landscape architecture. During his time outside of studios, he enjoys tutoring in various subjects.

Sara Harris is pursuing a Bachelor’s in the Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning program at Utah State University with a minor in Ornamental Horticulture. She believes that the Earth is for all people, plants, and animals and that the environments we produce should reflect that. Sara is passionate about combining her love for the natural world with recreation to create accessible and sustainable spaces for all communities to enjoy. She is interested in parks and open spaces, planting and residential design, playgrounds, and general architecture. Her goal is to help others appreciate the planet a little more by combining the beauty of nature with the comforts of indoors and by pairing education with play. When she is not in the studio, you can find Sara admiring wildflowers, swimming in lakes, reading a book in the sun, tending to her vegetable garden, or trying out a new video game.

Ezra wants to use the built environment to promote sustainable and reciprocal relationships between communities and the environment. She also wants to design spaces that could be used for horticulture education and food production for local communities as a harm reduction strategy to address food deserts, while spurring community investment and emphasizing the importance of historic preservation. Ezra hopes to design spaces that uplift the community and contribute to the health and safety of a population and their environment.

Anaya is an undergraduate landscape architecture student with a minor in sustainability. She is passionate about a career in landscape architecture because she would like to be a catalyst for change in the environment as well as in her community as an African American woman. Anaya believes she is beyond capable of making purposeful designs and paying homage to people, places, and events that can be shown through spaces with the right components. She has an interest in green burial and designing more sustainable landscapes. 

She is a proud member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Inc, as well as Lambda Sigma Alpha. Some of her personal interests include taking care of her plants, painting, and traveling.

Born and raised in Cincinnati, Kaia graduated from Ohio University in May 2022 with a BA in Environmental Studies and a minor in Spanish. Her past research discusses the effects of gentrification, displacement, and housing affordability in the downtown district of her hometown. At present, her interests include urban design with an emphasis on environmental and social sustainability, as well as how urban farming shapes city landscapes. In the future, Kaia plans to integrate principles of landscape architecture with just and equitable food growing practices in cities.

In her personal time she enjoys hiking, cooking, and traveling.

Jade is an aspiring urban ecologist, environmental justice advocate, and designer based in O’ahu. Born and raised in Detroit, Jade grew up analyzing the ecologies and cultural fabrics that live in the urban landscape. Her experiences have guided her principles of thinking about how we can reconnect with place, land, and culture, through flora and fauna as a vehicle of healing. She holds bachelors degrees from Hawaii Pacific University in Pacific Island Studies and International Sustainability, Policy & Anthropology. Jade has worn many hats in community land stewardship, organizing and designing community spaces that produce food within the Pacific cultural context. Her mission is to advocate for just and resilient community food systems, integrate indigenous knowledge into the design of urban ecosystems, and inspire Black folks to reconnect with land and the outdoors.

Jaliyah "Penny" Shepherd hails from Chicago, Illinois. She enjoys jamming on the guitar, building Legos, and staying connected to her spirituality. Mental health awareness is also a big deal for Jaliyah, and that's one of the reasons she chose to major in landscape architecture. Nature has a way of soothing the soul, and Jaliyah wants to design spaces that can provide that same sense of peace and healing for others struggling with their mental health. Beyond her academic pursuits, Jaliyah has channeled her design talents into a clothing brand called SARTORIAL PENNY. Looking ahead, she plans to further expand her knowledge and skills by obtaining a master’s in construction management.

Amira is a New Orleans native currently residing in North Carolina to pursue her educational dreams. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Environmental Studies from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. While attending, she was an Undergraduate Research Scholar and a Phi Kappa Phi organization member. At NC A&T, her love for nature and spending time outdoors grew as she took time to explore local parks and regional hiking trails. Her appreciation for nature drew her attention to disparities in green spaces within Greensboro's urban communities, causing her to further examine access discrepancies throughout the United States. Her curiosity led her to pursue a Master of Landscape Architecture at North Carolina State University. There, Amira is investigating ways to address the lack of green space to improve mental and physical health within urban Black and Brown communities.

Piper is a landscape architect student at Colorado State University. Passionate about a career in landscape architecture, she wants to create spaces that evoke emotions and a sense of closeness. Growing up in Orange County, California she experienced many of these spaces herself and realized how important thoughtful and natural spaces are in shaping the human experience. Her interests include accessibility, water and natural resource management, alternative uses for green spaces, and ecological restoration. Piper was recently elected ASLA Colorado Liaison for her Student Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects and is excited to facilitate this coming year's activities. In her free time, you’ll find her outdoors hiking, rock climbing, or paddle boarding with friends. While indoors you’ll find her testing out new recipes, crocheting, or curled up with a good book.

Zaria holds a BS in Environmental Science and Studies with a concentration in policy and management from Towson University. While she has an interdisciplinary background, her roots are heavily grounded in biology and ecology. Zaria's interests lie in equitable and sustainable development, green infrastructure, and environmental justice. She hopes to use landscape architecture as a tangible means to reshape spaces that have been unjustly stripped from BIPOC communities, rekindling their connection with green spaces. She wants to help mobilize efforts toward community land development without displacement, and advance the goals of zero waste. She is deeply committed to using design as a tool to bring about new urban landscapes in which underserved populations can access the wide variety of goods and spaces from which they have been historically barred.

Originally from Chicago, Naomi's desire to help her community led her to The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), where she received a degree in Crop Sciences: Horticultural Food Systems. Studying at UIUC, Naomi's curiosities expanded to design, leading to her graduate studies at RISD. Currently, Naomi is in the process of shifting her work to be more aligned with her interest in psychology and mental health. She aims to push for her designs to incorporate biomimicry and environmental psychology methodology as a baseline when thinking about curating a landscape.

Kareem is an aspiring landscape architect at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Growing up in Northeast Washington, DC, he has experienced firsthand the lack of green spaces and is driven to change this by bringing the issues to city decision-makers and sharing research and statistics about the positive impact that accessible green spaces can have on mental wellness and crime rates. Through landscape architecture, he hopes to address meaningful issues like
mental health and future impacts of climate change in a creative and critical way in the
communities and spaces that need it most.

Outside of the studio, he enjoys spending time with family and tutoring first-time English speakers from various backgrounds.

Ezra wants to use the built environment to promote sustainable and reciprocal relationships between communities and the environment. She also wants to design spaces that could be used for horticulture education and food production for local communities as a harm reduction strategy to address food deserts, while spurring community investment and emphasizing the importance of historic preservation. Ezra hopes to design spaces that uplift the community and contribute to the health and safety of a population and their environment.

Anaya is a 4th-year landscape architecture student with a minor in sustainability. She is passionate about a career in landscape architecture because she would like to be a catalyst for change in the environment, as well as in her community, as an African American woman. Anaya believes she is beyond capable of making purposeful designs and paying homage to people, places, and events that can be shown through spaces with the right components. She has an interest in green burial and designing more sustainable landscapes. 

She is a proud member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Inc, as well as Lambda Sigma Alpha. Some of her personal interests include taking care of her plants, painting, and traveling.

Born and raised in Cincinnati, Kaia graduated from Ohio University in May 2022 with a BA in Environmental Studies and a minor in Spanish. Her past research discusses the effects of gentrification, displacement, and housing affordability in the downtown district of her hometown. At present, her interests include urban design with an emphasis on environmental and social sustainability, as well as how urban farming shapes city landscapes. In the future, Kaia plans to integrate principles of landscape architecture with just and equitable food growing practices in cities.

In her personal time she enjoys hiking, cooking, and traveling.

Shantol developed an interest in drawing and painting at an early age. With a few architectural design studios under her belt, Shantol completed her Associate degree in the arts at Broward Community College in Florida, then moved west to Seattle, Washington, inspired by the prospect of beautiful views and innovative design. Traveling while studying and working in the field is one of her career aspirations. Representation of diverse cultures and designing with the context of how people feel in space and what they bring to a space is an area of focus for her. She is currently pursuing a minor in Anthropology to pursue this relationship.

Jade is an aspiring urban ecologist, environmental justice advocate, and designer based in O’ahu. Born and raised in Detroit, Jade grew up analyzing the ecologies and cultural fabrics that live in the urban landscape. Her experiences have guided her principles of thinking about how we can reconnect with place, land, and culture, through flora and fauna as a vehicle of healing. She holds bachelors degrees from Hawaii Pacific University in Pacific Island Studies and International Sustainability, Policy & Anthropology. Jade has worn many hats in community land stewardship, organizing and designing community spaces that produce food within the Pacific cultural context. Her mission is to advocate for just and resilient community food systems, integrate indigenous knowledge into the design of urban ecosystems, and inspire Black folks to reconnect with land and the outdoors.

After receiving a Bachelor of Science in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation at the University of Delaware, Charlye is pursuing an MLA with an interest in designing spaces to promote wildlife conservation, green infrastructure, innovative technology, and corporate social responsibility. Charlye hopes to research the dramatic slowdown in human activity caused by the pandemic along with the ways in which humans may better coexist with wildlife on a day-to-day basis. One day, she hopes to have her own apiary.

Zaria holds a BS in Environmental Science and Studies with a concentration in policy and management from Towson University. While she has an interdisciplinary background, her roots are heavily grounded in biology and ecology. Zaria's interests lie in equitable and sustainable development, green infrastructure, and environmental justice. She hopes to use landscape architecture as a tangible means to reshape spaces that have been unjustly stripped from BIPOC communities, rekindling their connection with green spaces. She wants to help mobilize efforts toward community land development without displacement, and advance the goals of zero waste. She is deeply committed to using design as a tool to bring about new urban landscapes in which underserved populations can access the wide variety of goods and spaces from which they have been historically barred.

Originally from Chicago, Naomi's desire to help her community led her to The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), where she received a degree in Crop Sciences: Horticultural Food Systems. Studying at UIUC, Naomi's curiosities expanded to design, leading to her graduate studies at RISD. Currently, Naomi is in the process of shifting her work to be more aligned with her interest in psychology and mental health. She aims to push for her designs to incorporate biomimicry and environmental psychology methodology as a baseline when thinking about curating a landscape.

Ezra wants to use the built environment to promote sustainable and reciprocal relationships between communities and the environment. She also wants to design spaces that could be used for horticulture education and food production for local communities as a harm reduction strategy to address food deserts, while spurring community investment and emphasizing the importance of historic preservation. Ezra hopes to design spaces that uplift the community and contribute to the health and safety of a population and their environment.

Shantol developed an interest in drawing and painting at an early age. With a few architectural design studios under her belt, Shantol completed her Associate degree in the arts at Broward Community College in Florida, then moved west to Seattle, Washington, inspired by the prospect of beautiful views and innovative design. Traveling while studying and working in the field is one of her career aspirations. Representation of diverse cultures and designing with the context of how people feel in space and what they bring to a space is an area of focus for her. She is currently pursuing a minor in Anthropology to pursue this relationship.

After receiving a Bachelor of Science in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation at the University of Delaware, Charlye is pursuing an MLA with an interest in designing spaces to promote wildlife conservation, green infrastructure, innovative technology, and corporate social responsibility. Charlye hopes to research the dramatic slowdown in human activity caused by the pandemic along with the ways in which humans may better coexist with wildlife on a day-to-day basis. One day, she hopes to have her own apiary.