Congratulations to our 2021 scholarship winners!
LAF awarded over $130,000 for our 2021 scholarship season. These scholarships reward superior student performance, encourage diversity, support original research, and assist students with unmet financial need.
Scroll through to see bios and photos of these deserving students.
In the fall, LAF will announce the scholarships available for the 2021-2022 academic year and begin accepting applications. Applications are due Feb 1 with the winners announced in the spring.
These awards are made possible through funds established by our generous sponsors.
Congratulations to Our 2021 Scholarship Winners!
LAF Honor Scholarship in Memory of Joe Lalli, FASLA
Award: $20,000
Leah Kahler
MLA, University of Virginia
Leah A. Kahler is a Masters of Landscape Architecture candidate at the University of Virginia. Leah holds Bachelors of Arts in Anthropology and the Growth and Structure of Cities from Bryn Mawr College. She delights in justice-oriented storytelling in, through, and of landscape, particularly in her home region of the Gulf South. Her current research as a Benjamin C. Howland Fellow explores the possibilities of an abolition ecology through speculative fictions at the site currently known as Louisiana State Penitentiary or Angola Farm. Leah also serves on the editorial board for UVA’s student-led design journal, LUNCH.
Congratulations to Our 2021 Scholarship Winners!
LAF Honor Scholarship in Memory of Joe Lalli, FASLA
Runner-up Award: $5,000
Priyanka Parachoor
MLA, University of Virginia
Priyanka Parachoor is a master's student at the University of Virginia interested in working to examine the hidden, micro-organic relationship between hydrology and spontaneous ecological transformations. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Architecture from the G.G.S. Indraprastha University, India. She formerly worked as a project architect at NMP Design, Delhi, India on the rejuvenation of waterbodies and city drains with the Department of Irrigation and Flood Control, Government of NCT Delhi. These projects were aimed at using environmentally sensitive and sustainable technologies to restore balance to the disturbed natural ecology of Delhi.
Congratulations to Our 2021 Scholarship Winners!
LAF Honor Scholarship for Inclusive Community Design
Award: $10,000
Daniel Zwier/Permaloc Innovation Scholarship
First Runner-up Award: $2,000
Ayana Belk
MLA, Kansas State University
Growing up near the dividing line of segregation and disinvestment in Kansas City, Ayana was drawn to landscape architecture as a means to heal her community. Once equipped with a Master of Landscape Architecture degree and Minor in Community Planning from Kansas State University, she intends to start a non-profit in Kansas City to provide a space where youth can discover landscape architecture while improving the Troost Corridor, the dividing line, through participatory design. Her graduate research addresses the Black students’ journey to discovering and navigating landscape architecture, and much of her work has focused on exploring the barriers Black landscape architecture students face, with the aim of offering universities and the profession recommendations for improving the Black experience and increasing the number of Black landscape architects.
Congratulations to Our 2021 Scholarship Winners!
ASLA Council of Fellows Scholarship
Award: $10,000
Daniella Slowik
BLA Candidate, University of Washington
At an early age, Daniella discovered nature’s ability to comfort, inspire, and rejuvenate. She shared that her experience with Tourette's Syndrome has granted her an intriguing blend of tics, curiosity, and challenges, and she has often escaped outside for respite and peace. Deeply embedded into her design values, these memories have greatly influenced her desire to develop symbiotic systems that both restore the health of sensitive ecosystems and invite underrepresented communities to experience the therapeutic benefits of the natural world.
Congratulations to Our 2021 Scholarship Winners!
ASLA Council of Fellows Scholarship
Award: $5,000
Najla Said Lopez
BLA Candidate, University of Florida
Najla moved to Miami, Florida in 2015 from Amman-Jordan, where she was born and raised. She got her Associates Degree in Architecture at Miami Dade College. Her experience working for non-profit organizations and in the mental health field developed her love for helping those in need. After spending some time working in horticulture, she developed her love for plants and expanded her plant knowledge. In her career, Najla hopes to have an opportunity where she can give back to the world and society, creating beautiful and meaningful spaces utilizing ecological and equity-based design.
Congratulations to Our 2021 Scholarship Winners!
ASLA Council of Fellows Scholarship
Award: $5,000
Walter Hogue
BLA, Mississippi State University
Walter is third in a family of fourteen and claims to have been shaped by both the joys and challenges of growing up in such an environment. He has a deep love for art, photography, the outdoors, and design that began to develop in his childhood. After high-school he served with Peru Mission in Trujillo, Peru, working for a local carpentry-shop and leading English classes for children and college students. He later enrolled in community college, then transferred to Mississippi State’s landscape architecture program. He hopes to focus on the planning and development of low-income cities and neighborhoods, particularly in developing nations.
Congratulations to Our 2021 Scholarship Winners!
ASLA Council of Fellows Scholarship
Award: $5,000
Matheus Gomes
BLA Candidate, University of Massachusetts - Amherst
Born in Brazil, Matheus moved to the U.S. at nine years old. He completed the Electrical Program at Blackstone Valley Regional Vocational Technical High School and later worked across Co-operative Programs, landscaping/construction/masonry, freelance graphic design, and landscape design. In his career, he wants to expand resilient gardening in the urban environment with a focus on green infrastructure and food security. He looks forward to establishing community-driven initiatives that promote public health and awareness by combining the sectors of gardening and art.
Congratulations to Our 2021 Scholarship Winners!
ASLA-NY Designing in the Public Realm Scholarship
Award: $5,000
Casey Breen
MLA Candidate, The City College of New York
As an undergraduate studying mathematics, Casey worked on the South Side Stories project, which illuminated a history of institutional oppression and community activism, and got her interested in examining human problems with a more interdisciplinary approach. She later worked at Terreform UR in New York City and decided to pursue an MLA. She seeks to use hyper-local design at the community scale to resist citywide systems that perpetuate inequity, and aspires to start a studio that doubles as a gathering space to facilitate active and continuous collaboration between architects and local community.
Congratulations to Our 2021 Scholarship Winners!
ASLA Florida Chapter Career Discovery Scholarships
Award: $5,000
LAF Honor Scholarship for Inclusive Community Design
Runner-up Award: $2,000
Caro Rubio
MLA Candidate, University of Florida
Caro has experience working in the built environment industry, underwriting federal loans in the affordable housing sector, conducting site inspections, and working with low-income communities. Their international portfolio showcases culturally and socially sensitive spaces for marginalized communities, including a complete-street design for a historically Black neighborhood in Gainesville, Florida, a therapeutic garden with a high population of Syrian refugees in Dals Långed, Sweden, and a planned-use site for a gentrified community in Raipur City, Chhattisgarh, India. They enjoy cycling with their partner and road-tripping to Florida's many state parks.
Congratulations to Our 2021 Scholarship Winners!
Peridian International, Inc./Rae L. Price, FASLA Scholarship
Award: $5,000
Elissa Urbina
BLA Candidate, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
Elissa grew up in the mountain town of Auburn, California, crediting this as the source of her passion to design spaces combining the natural world and built environment. She is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in landscape architecture and plans to return for an MLA after a few years of professional experience and becoming licensed. She is double-minoring in sustainable environments and indigenous studies in natural resources and the environment. Outside of school, she loves cooking, running, and any outdoor activity. She spends her weekends exploring the various natural wonders along the central coast.
Congratulations to Our 2021 Scholarship Winners!
Steven G. King Play Environments Scholarship
Award: $5,000
Lucia Blanco
MLA Candidate, University of Calgary
Lucia is a Mexican interior architect from the University of the Americas Puebla. She has worked for several years in the Government of Mexico City’s experimental urbanism office, where she co-led a series of public space design interventions centered on the concepts of urban play and learning. In 2019, she received the Chancellor Cuthbertson Environmental Design Graduate Entrance Scholarship, with she extended her practice into the design of playful environments for children living in cities. Currently, Lucia is a play researcher and designer at Sustainable Calgary where she explores new possibilities to integrate playful landscapes into Calgary’s streetscape.
Congratulations to Our 2021 Scholarship Winners!
Douglas Dockery Thomas Fellowship in Garden History and Design
Award: $4,000
Anna Bierbrauer
PhD Candidate, University of Colorado - Denver
Anna is a PhD candidate in Geography, Design, and Planning. Her research combines political ecology, environmental history, and critical physical geography into the landscape architecture and planning to understand equity issues related to water and vegetation in cities of the American West. Her past projects range from a mobile education station about stormwater, urban streetscape and green infrastructure designs, and more. She has also worked collaboratively with artists and collectives to further interdisciplinary dialogue about changing landscapes. Anna holds a Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of Minnesota.
Congratulations to Our 2021 Scholarship Winners!
Courtland Paul Scholarship
Award $5,000
Valerie Alegre
BSLA Candidate, Cal Poly Pomona
Valerie is a third-year landscape architecture student minoring in regenerative studies. She has an associate degree in studio arts from Los Angeles City College, where she gained artistic skills that have continued to aid her endeavors. In studying landscape architecture, she has found that regenerative studies are critical to future of design. By combining regenerative practices and landscape architecture, she hopes to make a positive change in efforts to address climate change.
Congratulations to Our 2021 Scholarship Winners!
Rain Bird Intelligent Use of Water™ Scholarship
Award: $2,500
Scott Michael Shoemaker
Landscape Architecture Certificate, UCLA Extension
While working towards his certificate and licensure, Scotty has worked across landscape architecture, residential architecture, living walls and, most recently, as Managing Director of the Northern California Solar Energy Association. He has a BA from Wesleyan University in Economics and Environmental Studies where his research focused on cap and trade, carbon tax models, and alternative currencies. Scotty has a deep love for nature and adventure, with a particular interest in coastlines (as a surfer) and Antarctic climates (inspired by a season of work at McMurdo Research Station in Antarctica).
Congratulations to Our 2021 Scholarship Winners!
Hawaii Chapter ASLA/David T. Woolsey Scholarship
Award: $2,000
Kiana Dai
MLA Candidate, University of Hawai’i-Manoa
Kiana is interested in sustainable designs that hybridize ecological and human benefits in their function. Originating from a Bay Area city protected by a crumbling 3-ft levee, she has observed the need for more innovative and ecologically minded adaptations to sea level rise across the Pacific, and hopes to design for these needs in her career. With a background in biochemistry, she hopes to fuse her scientific knowledge and precision into compassionate and restorative designs for people and planet. When not studying landscape architecture, you’ll find Kiana surfing, or home tending to her growing apartment jungle.
Congratulations to Our 2021 Scholarship Winners!
Hawaii Chapter ASLA/David T. Woolsey Scholarship
Award: $2,000
Daniel Zwier/Permaloc Innovation Scholarship
Second Runner-up Award: $1,000
Emerson Goo
BLA Candidate, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
Emerson was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, and is a landscape architecture undergrad student pursuing minors in restoration ecology and city planning, with coastal planning and management as areas of interest. He is passionate about arts writing and criticism, and aspires to be a design critic in the future. As a deaf student, Emerson hopes to advocate for disabled designers in built environment professions and promote values such as inclusive, accessible design.
Congratulations to Our 2021 Scholarship Winners!
Landscape Forms Scholarship in Memory of Peter Schaudt, FASLA
Award: $5,000
Jordan Chiang
BLA Candidate, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
From Pasadena, California, Jordan is a fifth-year student with minors in architecture, sustainable environments, and indigenous studies. He was vice president of the Sigma Lambda Alpha Honor Society, coordinates the Cal Poly Shadowship Program, and is helping to start a NAMLA student chapter. In the future, Jordan plans on becoming a professor and pursuing research on landscape performance and universal design. His personal interests include learning how to cook new things within a plant-based diet, painting, and playing the marimba and French horn.
Congratulations to Our 2021 Scholarship Winners!
Landscape Forms Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Scholarship
Award: $5,000
Diamond Owens
BLA Candidate, University of Georgia
Diamond is pursuing an undergraduate degree in landscape architecture and graduate degree in environmental planning. She was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia and graduated from Carver Early College in the top ten of her class with many accolades. She is involved in many campus clubs and organizations including Georgia Students of Landscape Architecture, UGA Crafty Dawgs, National Council of Negro Women, and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. Her future plans are to become a community advocate through landscape architecture and planning, aiding communities of different backgrounds.
Congratulations to Our 2021 Scholarship Winners!
EDSA Diversity Scholarship
Award: $5,000
Shakira Hood
BSLA Candidate, North Carolina A&T State University
Shakira is pursuing an undergraduate degree in landscape architecture. She lives in New York City, and living there has helped her realize that many people living in urban areas, especially low-income communities, have limited access to nature. She believes having access to greenery is significant for health and well-being, and is pursuing landscape architecture in order to use her passion for design and community building to revitalize areas so residents can benefit from what the Earth has to offer. Her love of travel and learning about different cultures affects her thinking as a landscape architect and helps her appreciate the design needs of many communities.
Congratulations to Our 2021 Scholarship Winners!
EDSA Diversity Scholarship
Award: $5,000
Daniela Rodriguez
MLA Candidate, Florida International University
Daniela is exploring regenerative processes through collaboration and community engagement while pursuing a Masters in Landscape Architecture + Environmental and Urban Design at Florida International University. She envisions working within public practice to fulfill her commitment to achieving justice and equity in underserved communities. She has a deep appreciation for the environment and its inhabitants, and uses that to fuel her passion for serving vulnerable people in crisis.
Congratulations to Our 2021 Scholarship Winners!
Daniel Zwier/Permaloc Innovation Scholarship
Award: $5,000
David Evans
MLA, University of Georgia
David grew up in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, with an early interest in the relationships between people and their surrounding landscapes. As an undergraduate he studied mathematics and environmental policy at the University of the South, where he indulged such diverse pursuits as springboard diving, backcountry backpacking, and swing dancing. His formal education has focused on a Masters of Landscape Architecture at the University of Georgia, and he is researching a thesis on the use of a mobile augmented reality app for the planning and design of offshore wind farms. In the future, he hopes to extend his skills and knowledge of augmented and virtual reality technologies to provide stakeholders with improved input and feedback processes through real-time, onsite digital design experiences in a private practice or public agency.
Each year, the Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF) offers over $120,000 through 15 different scholarships and fellowships.
LAF scholarships help diversify the pool of talent and increase academic opportunity for new generations of designers. These awards are made possible through funds established by our generous sponsors.
Each academic year, available scholarships are announced in the fall with all applications materials due February 1. Eligible candidates are undergraduate or graduate students enrolled at colleges and universities in the U.S. and Canada. Additional requirements vary by scholarship.
The average student debt load for landscape architecture graduates is $34,000.
To date, the Landscape Architecture Foundation has awarded $1.4 million in scholarships to 585 students.
Leah Kahler is the 2021 recipient of the $20,000 LAF Honor Scholarship in Memory of Joe Lalli, FASLA.
