Scholarship | Leadership in Landscape Scholarships/Fellowships

Leadership in Landscape Scholarship/Fellowship Winners

Molly Briggs is a PhD student in the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her proposed dissertation, Seeing Through Chicago’s West Parks: Panorama and Landscape Performance focuses on how popular imagery of Chicago’s west side parks has constituted public perception and use of the parks, influencing their development over time and impacting the lives of area residents. Molly is a painter and scholar who holds an MFA in art theory and practice from Northwestern University. She has exhibited widely and has taught studio art and design at the university level for 15 years. She joined the PhD program as a means to examine the practical implications of representing landscape. She is conducting field, archival and ethnographic research on the relationship between popular images and the parks themselves (including the interconnecting boulevard system), which are located in neighborhoods challenged by poverty, crime and gentrification.
2013 Douglas Dockery Thomas Fellowship
Molly Briggs
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
PhD Candidate

“Being a Hispanic has broadened my view in many things such as how socially different this world is especially when it comes to education. As a low income, inner-city student, I grew up always with the same people surrounding me, never exposed to different ideas or cultures until I attended college. Attending a higher educational institution has made me realize that there is a different world beyond my nose-a world enriched of diversity. Because of this, I have been able to further expand my personal awareness of cultures and be able to do what I love most- creating functional and interacting spaces that incorporate diversity. As a first generation student, my ultimate goal is to become a registered landscape architect that delivers exceptional services to clients by designing people spaces that function with the natural environment while having the opportunity of helping my community.”
2013 ASLA Council of Fellows Scholarship
Tania Hernandez
Texas A&M University
BLA Candidate

Recollecting her grandmother’s transformation of seemingly unviable land into a thriving garden, Pham was inspired to study landscape architecture at the University of Georgia. Currently a fourth year student, she has a strong interest in the problem-solving abilities of landscape architecture. She is particularly interested in using it as a means to improve the quality of life of those in urban settings, from remediating environmental ailments to improving social conditions. She plans to work after graduation, before pursuing a master’s in urban design and architecture. In the meantime, Pham keeps busy by playing a participatory role within her college. She was treasurer for the Georgia Students of Landscape Architecture, and is now serving as a fourth-year class representative. She is also the current vice president of the University of Georgia’s chapter of Sigma Lambda Alpha and the logistics chair on the LABash 2013 Conference Planning Committee.
2013 ASLA Council of Fellows Scholarship
Quynh Pham
University of Georgia
BLA Candidate

Allison is a junior landscape architecture student studying at Temple University Ambler. She has always been intrigued with historic sites, mainly national battlefields, and hopes to further her interests by preserving and restoring these historic treasures. She thrives upon being apart of something larger than herself and rethinking our current ways in sustaining landscapes. Currently, she is active in student organizations and holds the position of Vice-President of student government on Temple University’s Ambler campus. She has found the time between her demanding class schedule to work in the admissions office as an Owl Ambassador by providing tours, and tutoring a middle school student twice a week.
2013 Courtland Paul Scholarship
Allison Hanna
Temple University Ambler
BLA Candidate

Ayaka Matthews is currently a second year student in the Landscape Architecture Master’s degree program at West Virginia University. She has a background in Ecology from Kyoto University in Japan. The focus of her study was the integrative techniques of regional planning and ecosystem management through the principles of ecosystem services and biodiversity. Now, she would like to focus on design spaces into places which address world issues between humans and nature in ecological dynamics, especially in regards to natural hazards. She agrees and lives by the idea, “You must be the change you wish to see in the world” as Mahatma Gandhi said, and she believes landscape architects can help facilitate this change in people through design that is restorative and responds to the need for the human-nature connection in order to build a better world for the future.
2013 EDSA Minority Scholarship
Ayaka Matthews
West Virginia University
MLA Candidate

Raised in Kaneohe, Oahu, Angelica graduated Magna Cum Laude with Bachelor of Arts degrees in Anthropology, International Studies and Japanese from Pacific University. Having received the honor and support of a Fulbright Fellowship to continue her bachelor’s thesis research on Japanese Garden preservation, Angelica spent one year living and researching gardens in Japan. It was in Japan that she realized how the preservation efforts of Hawai’i’s unique landscapes were in need of creative thought and action. This realization led Angelica to her current Master’s degree studies of Landscape Architecture at the University of Washington. With a research focus of designing outdoor environmental education play spaces for young children based on Native Hawaiian cultural traditions and values, Angelica is determined to return to Hawai’i to not only become a professional landscape architect but to use her education, training and experiences to be a cultural landscape steward for Hawai’i’s environment in the face of urban development.
2013 Hawaii Chapter / David T Woolsey Scholarship
Angelica Rockquemore
University of Washington
MLA Candidate