Applications are open for this multi-year program
LAF is accepting applications from students for the fifth cohort of Ignite, which begins in fall 2026. LAF Ignite is a multi-year program with three core components: an annual scholarship, paid summer internships, and ongoing mentorship. Applications are due May 18.
Starting this year, the program is open to Indigenous as well as Black/African American landscape architecture students.
LAF Ignite 2026 Application Cycle Timeline
Mar - Call for applications announced
May 18 - Application deadline
Jun-Jul - Shortlisted candidate interviews
Aug - Winners announced
Sept - Program begins
LAF’s Multi-Year Program for BIPOC students
Many barriers to becoming a landscape architect occur during the period between entering college and entering the workforce, particularly BIPOC students who may not see themselves or their lived experience reflected in their faculty, employers, and peers.
LAF Ignite was developed to support students through this important stage and help them overcome prevalent barriers so that we can make the discipline of landscape architecture as diverse as the communities in which landscape architects work.
The program launched in 2022 thanks to the generous investment of 146 Founding Donors. Interested landscape architecture professionals can get involved as an internship provider, mentor, or donor. For students, the next cycle of LAF Ignite will begin in fall 2026, with applications open in spring 2026.
Congratulations to the Fourth Cohort!
Seven landscape architecture students have been selected for the fourth cohort of LAF Ignite, which begins in September. We look forward to working with these students!
- Sariyah Benoit, MLA Candidate, University of California, Berkeley
- Gabriella Bishop, BSLA Candidate, North Carolina A&T State University
- Drea Blackburn, MLA Candidate, North Carolina State University
- Jeida Brooks, MLA Candidate, University of Virginia
- Zakai Drew, BSLA Candidate, Cal Poly Pomona
- Aisha Estrada, BSLA Candidate, Cal Poly Pomona
- Frank Hicks, MLA Candidate, University of Oklahoma
LAF also recognized two finalists who stood out during the Ignite selection process: Stephanie Haynesworth and Isaiah Ramsey
Ready to ignite your journey to becoming a landscape architect?
LAF Ignite is a comprehensive Scholarship + Internships + Mentorship program for BIPOC* college students, providing participants with an annual $10,000 scholarship, annual paid summer internship, and access to mentors throughout their educational path.
Each year, 4-7 students are accepted into Ignite and participate until they have completed their landscape architecture degree. Every new cohort joins the group from past years for facilitated virtual meetings and peer-to-peer mentorship. Participants are matched with a one-on-one mentor and use paid summer internships to explore different career paths within landscape architecture.
*At this time, eligible candidates must identify as Black/African American or Indigenous. LAF plans to broaden this to other identities in future years.
Program Goals
We live in a world that is inequitable by design. And through design we can begin to change it. Ignite represents a focused effort by LAF — and the many individuals, firms, organizations, and partners who have invested in the program — to make the discipline of landscape architecture as diverse as the communities in which landscape architects work.
Many barriers to becoming a landscape architect occur during the period between entering college and entering the workforce, particularly for BIPOC students who may not see themselves or their lived experience reflected in their faculty, employers, and peers. Ignite was developed to support BIPOC students through this important stage and help them overcome prevalent barriers by providing:
- reliable and meaningful funding, so they can stay in and focus on school
- access to mentors, so they have a guide and support network
- paid internships, so they get real life (paid) experience and exposure to a variety of ways to practice
By investing in these deserving students, we can grow and change the field of landscape architecture and infuse it with new energy and ideas to create a healthier, more equitable, and sustainable future.
Expanding Over Time
The LAF Ignite program has been several years in the making with input from many different groups to ensure it responds to identified gaps and needs.
For the first four cycles, Ignite focused on Black/African American students, recognizing the disproportionate oppression and disinvestment Black/African Americans have experienced and continue to experience, upheld by systemic racism that is embedded in all aspects of society. Starting with this more targeted group has allowed LAF to build the program with Black/African American partners, more effectively understand and address the specific barriers experienced by Black/African American students, and create a shared-identity experience and network of support.
Starting with the fifth cohort, LAF Ignite is open to Indigenous in addition to Black/African American applicants. This next stage of the program recognizes the persistent impacts of colonization, land dispossession, forced assimilation, and chronic disinvestment experienced by Indigenous peoples across North America. The expansion was planned with care and intention to ensure that the program has the structure, cultural representation, and lived experience to support the needs of different identities.
As the program builds and is opened 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 a network of support for each community.
