Scholarships

Background:

Distinguished alumni of the LAEP program at USU, J. Robert Behling (BLA, ‘73), FASLA, and Joe A. Porter (BLA, ‘63), FASLA, in conjunction with Justin J. Hamula (BLA, ‘95) and Hunter Industries, created the 75th Anniversary Scholarship to benefit students who are studying landscape architecture and environmental planning. Their generous gifts celebrate the first three-quarters of a century since LAEP’s founding in 1939.

The Scholarship supports the recipient’s needs associated with academic purposes, and only in the College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences and the Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning.

Eligibility:

Eligible recipient(s) of the Scholarship shall be enrolled in a graduate or undergraduate program in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning.

Selection Process:

There is no application for this scholarship. Instead, LAEP faculty members nominate deserving students, and a recipient is chosen by consensus. Recipients of the Scholarship shall be selected on the basis of:

• Demonstrated potential as future leaders in the discipline
• Demonstrated financial needs, particularly those faced by non-resident students.

Recipients:

2018-2019 Paul Stead
2019-2020 Nicholas LeSchofs
2020-2021 Jessica Clements
2021-2022 Ian Kola
2022-2023 Conner Smith

Background:

One of the most beloved LAEP faculty members of all time was Professor Craig Johnson. His dedication to students and commitment to the field of Landscape Architecture inspired many over the years. One such student was so affected by, and appreciative of Professor Johnson’s work, that he started a scholarship in Craig’s honor. That student was alumnus Bruce Meeks.

Eligibility:

This scholarship is used to select a student who excels in all of their LAEP courses and will become a leader in the Landscape Architecture profession. This scholarship is for landscape architecture majors.

Selection Process:

The scholarship is awarded based on faculty nominations. There is no application for this award, and the recipient will be announced at the annual awards banquet in the spring.

Award Amount:

$6,000

Recipients:

Background:

From 1993-2017, David Bell joined the LAEP Faculty. Beyond teaching, he worked through Utah to preserve the character and beauty of the many quickly growing towns and cities. Always going the extra mile, Dave drove many miles, and worked many late nights to help wherever need. The quiet efforts of David Bell have made the world a better place. Thanks to the generosity of anonymous donors, and the vision of Dave’s former students, we were able to create the David Bell Scholarship. Its purpose is to encourage and sustain selfless service in defense of the environment in which we all live, similar to the service provided throughout the career of David Bell.

Eligibility:

The Scholarship supports one outstanding LAEP student. This annual award is given based upon demonstrated superior potential and academic performance in the field of landscape architecture or environmental planning, personal integrity, and a high degree of social and ethical responsibility.

Selection Process:

This scholarship was first awarded in 2019, and it's recipient is voted on by faculty members. The awardee will be announced at the annual LAEP Awards Banquet at the end of spring semester.

Recipients:

2019-2020 Helen Lea
2020-2021 Derek Jensen
2021-2022 Corinne Bahr
2022-2023 Dylan McMurdie

Background:

LAEP alumnus David R. Jensen (BFA, 1965) established the David Jensen Scholarship Endowment Fund in 1989. David was the founder and principal of David Jensen Associates, Inc , an award winning land planning and design firm located in Denver, Colorado.

Eligibility:

The Scholarship supports one outstanding 1st or 2nd year LAEP graduate student. This annual award is given based upon demonstrated superior potential and academic performance in the field of landscape architecture or environmental planning, personal integrity, and a high degree of social and ethical responsibility. Graduate students are encouraged to apply via the USU scholarship system on the College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences website early in spring semester.

Selection Process:

Students will apply via the USU scholarship system. Departmental faculty will then choose the recipient among the applications. The awardee will be announced at the annual LAEP Awards Banquet at the end of spring semester.

Recipients:

1990-1991 Rob King - MLA, '92
1991-1992 Kevin Draper – MLA, '93
1992-1993 Patricia Huguenard – BLA, '92
1993-1994 Jinger P. Diaz – BLA, '94
1994-1995 Jackie Hoffer – MLA, '98
1995-96 Jennifer Pettyjohn
1996-97 Jamie Maslyn – MLA, '98
1997-98 Gary Bentrup – MLA, '99
1998-99 Marisa Santacruz – MLA, '01
1999-00 Gary Sievers – BLA, '00
2000-2001 Deandra Harps – BLA, '02
2001-2002 Shalae Larsen – BLA, '02
2002-2003 Maria K. Adams - BLA, '02
2003-2004 Bryce Bushman - BLA, '04
2004-2005 John Brooklyn Oswald – BLA, '06
2005-2006 Dan Bolin – MLA, '08
2006-2007 Benjamin George – MLA, '09
2008-2009 Lindsay Winkler – MLA, '10
2009-2010 Justin Wilson – MLA, '11
2010-2011 Kate Spears
2011-2012 Kathryn Knight – MLA, '13
2013-2014 Nicholas Tanner - MLA, '15
2014-2015 Chris Binder - MLA, '15
2015-2016 Keni Althouse - MLA, '16
2016-2017 Suzie Gomez - MLA, '17 and Emmett Pruss - MsBRP, '17
2017-2018 Mary Oliver
2018-2019 Drew Hill
2019-2020 Amelia Theobald
2020-2021 Lloyd Sutton
2021-2022 Jessica Zuban
2022-2023 Joseph Pancoast

Background:

Recognizing the importance of diversity within our profession, the Diversity in Landscape Architecture award is given to a student from an under-represented population, who is pursuing a landscape architecture degree. This scholarship was formerly known as the Women in Landscape Architecture (WILA) Scholarship. This scholarship is provided by alumni donations and the generous support of CRSA. The award provides $1,000 in tuition support for the next school year.

Eligibility:

Recipients must be matriculated student minority within the Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning Department.

Selection Process:

Students must apply via the USU scholarship system. The applications will then be reviewed by the LAEP faculty, and the recipient will be announced at the annual awards banquet in April.

Recipients:

Background:

Advancement Board Member and alum, Brian Huculak began the scholarship in 2019 in an effort to recognize and thank those who supported him as a student and young professional. Brian (“huc” to his friends) graduated from the USU program in 1987 with a Bachelors in Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning. Born in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, Brian established this endowment NOT to recognize his achievements, but to acknowledge the sacrifice, support, and financial contributions made by his father John, mother Kathleen, and sisters in making it possible for him to be the first in his family to graduate from College. The endowment stands as recognition of his great-grand parents who immigrated in 1898 & 1901 from the Austria-Hungarian empire to make a journey of thousands of miles by foot, ship, and train to pioneer the Canadian west as farmers in pursuit of starting a better life for the generations who followed. It also acknowledges the opportunities and support afforded to him by all his clients, co-workers, classmates, professors, extended family and friends who provided him with candid advice throughout his professional career and in life. He believes LAEP Alumni are best positioned to be the stewards of this fine program and this endowment is one small step toward that goal.

Eligibility:

Students must be matriculated into the LAEP Department, be in good academic standing and have a demonstrated financial need.

Selection Process:

Recipients will be nominated and chosen by LAEP faculty.

Recipients:

2019-2020 Danyel Mezzanatto
2020-2021 Anna Brown
2021-2022 Hannah Anderson and Tyson Turner
2022-2023 Braya Robbins

Background:

Randy Jackson, an alum with 43 years in the profession is a great friend of LAEP. Randy attributes the professional guidance and gentle hand of LAEP professors and staff with helping shape who he is and what he has achieved. To repay in a small way, he has pledged his support to today’s LAEP students via the Jackson Family Scholarship.

Eligibility:

Students must be matriculated into the LAEP Department, be in good academic standing and have a demonstrated financial need.

Selection Process:

Recipients will be nominated and chosen by LAEP faculty.

Recipients:

2019-2020 Kenzy Fogle
2020-2021 Amelia Theobold
2021-2022 Elizabeth Braithwaite
2022-2023 Lilian Taft

Background

Kenji Shiozawa, FASLA (1916-1999), was one of the first two landscape architecture graduates (BS, 1940) from Utah State University. In 1946, Kenji Shiozawa returned to his alma mater following service in World War II as a graduate teaching assistant to Prof. Laval Morris. Morris created a tailored master’s degree for his assistant due to the lack of such a graduate program. In 1949, following completion of the first LAEP graduate degree at USU (MS in Landscape Architecture), Kenji Shiozawa became an Instructor in the department at Prof. Morris’s invitation, and subsequently was promoted. Professors Morris and Shiozawa taught all studios from 1949 to 1957, and were extensively involved in campus planning for USU.

The Kenji Shiozawa Scholarship, established in 2001, was created by the children of Prof. Shiozawa to honor his memory, supported by friends and former students, and intended to support the training of future landscape architects. Kenji Shiozawa’s professional influence can be seen in 18 national forests in the Intermountain West, where he served as regional Landscape Architect from 1959-1978. During his career in the U.S. Forest Service, he hired, trained and supervised almost 200 other landscape architects, many of them USU graduates. He was awarded Fellow status by the American Society of Landscape Architects in 1978, becoming the first USU alumni to receive the honor.

Eligibility:

Current LAEP juniors or 1st and 2nd year graduate students are eligible to apply for the scholarship that is included in the recipient’s financial aid package the following year. Students are awarded based on GPA and performance in LAEP coursework. Applications are submitted via the USU scholarship system on the College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences website.

Selection Process:

During spring semester, the departmental faculty will then select the scholarship recipient from amongst the applications submitted.

Recipients:

2008-2009 David Runkel - BLA, '09
2009-2010 Colleen Corballis - MLA, '10
2010-2011 Tom Cluff  - MLA, '11
2012-2013 Clifton "Russ" Grover - BLA, '13
2013-2014 Whitney May - BLA, '14
2014-2015 Stephen Peaden - MLA '15 & Jenna McRory - BLA '15
2015-2016 Hailey Wall - BLA, '16
2016-2017 Alonzo Rhodes and Emmet Pruss
2017-2018 Paul Stead and Ryan Stauffer
2018-2019 Ashley Casperson and Aerial Wright
2019-2020 Rob Lozanoff and Ethan Balls
2020-2021 Ian Kola and Danyel Mezzanatto
2021-2022 Lloyd Sutton and Lilian Taft
2022-2023 Corinne Bahr

Background:

Ken Volkman was raised on a farm and at a tender age learned the value of hard work and maintained that work ethic throughout his life. Ken proudly served his country in the Utah Army National Guard Special Forces unit as a Green Beret and retired as a major after 20 years of service. He ran his own business as a landscape designer for 10 years in Smithfield, UT, giving back to the community through his work. Ken was renowned for his love of people, and would drop everything at a moments notice to help those in need. It is this love for helping those in need that made Ken’s family and friends feel that this scholarship would be a fitting tribute to Ken’s memory and life spent in the service of others. This scholarship will help students in the Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning Department at Utah State University to increase their education, and in turn it is expected that they will use that education to foster a continued legacy of service to others in their own communities.

Eligibility:

Eligible recipient(s) of the Scholarship shall:

• have demonstrated unmet financial need;
• be enrolled in the Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning Department;
• be a junior, or 1st or 2nd year graduate in rank.

Recipients of the Scholarship will be selected on the basis of:

• commitment to learning and improving skills that will strengthen himself/herself and others in the field of landscape architecture and environmental planning;
• demonstrated spirit of service to classmates and community;
• demonstrated success at overcoming adversity and/or challenges to accomplishments (e.g., attending USU); and
• strength of the service project proposed, including its merits for:
  
  • feasibility of the proposal to improve the community and environment,
  • involving other students and community members,
  • engendering further acts of service by others, and
  • establishing the recipient’s own legacy of service.

Selection Process:

Students will apply via the USU scholarship system. The LAEP faculty will then select a student in a March meeting based on the criteria listed above. The recipient will be announced at the Departmental Awards Banquet in April and the scholarship will be applied to their financial aid the following year.

Recipients:

Background:

In September of 1978, the MLA Class of 1981 met for the first time under the shade of a London Plane tree on Old Main Hill. Since then the members of the Class have parlayed their Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning (LAEP) education into diverse and distinguished careers. Software Development, Renewable Energy and Climate Change Action, Federal Land Planning, National Park Management and Environmental Consulting have been among the array of diverse careers its members have pursued. None of the members have followed the path of practicing traditional landscape architect per se. However, the education that the Class of 1981 received from the LAEP Department was critical in shaping each member’s careers. Amazingly, that education is best described, in part, by excerpts from the Mission Statement of the LAEP Department:

• To graduate critical thinkers and creative problem solvers who are equipped with the necessary knowledge, skills, and abilities to practice” … their chosen profession.
• To support students and faculty to be “engaged in the creative exploration, identification, analysis and appropriate resolution of design, planning and management issues.”
• To provide “curricula [which] are designed to provide a broad-based education, covering the multi-disciplinary role of the landscape architect in areas of theoretical as well as applied knowledge.”

The Class of 1981 wishes to give something back to future LAEP graduate students, and thereby to sustain the foundation of what the LAEP Department provided it. The Class of 1981 hopes this scholarship will help sustain LAEP and its future graduate students to carry on. Their intent is that other LAEP graduates will contribute to help sustain the legacy of the department that has graduated 100’s of critical thinking problem solvers, and to help create balance in today’s world of social and environmental extremes.

Eligibility:

Eligible recipient(s) of the MLA Class of 1981 Scholarship shall:

• Have demonstrated unmet financial need;
• Be enrolled in the Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning Department;
• Be a graduate student in rank.

Selection Process:

Recipients of the Scholarship shall be selected on the basis of:

• Commitment to learning and improving skills that will strengthen himself/herself and others in the field of landscape architecture and environmental planning;
• Demonstrated commitment to solving significant environmental and societal problems through design, planning and/or management;
• Demonstrated creativity and leadership from among peers, which reflects the critical thinking exemplified in outstanding LAEP alumni;
• Integration of multidisciplinary study, knowledge and best practices to pressing problems as identified for investigation in the graduate thesis.

Graduate students will apply via the USU scholarship system in spring semester. The faculty will select a student in a March meeting based on the criteria listed above. The recipient will be announced at the Departmental Awards Banquet in April and the scholarship will be applied to their financial aid the following year.

Recipients:

Background:

Formed in 2012 as the LAEP Faculty Scholarship, this annual award recognizes one outstanding student, in either the BLA or MLA program, whose achievements in the Department have distinguished them from among their peers.  Areas of excellence may include academic performance, service and engagement beyond the department, outreach on behalf of the profession, leadership, or a combinations of these.  The scholarship is funded by the personal contributions of current faculty members in the Department and by the family of Professor A.A. Heravi, who offered their generous support to assist in establishing an endowment in 2019. Faculty members continue to contribute to the scholarship fund with the goal of providing financial assistance to those who have demonstrated persistent and exceptional qualities of excellence during their pursuit of design and planning education.

In 2019, one of two LAEP Faculty Scholarships was awarded in honor of Madison Dean. Just prior to the start of Fall semester 2018, LAEP received news that Madison, a returning sophomore in the BLA program, was involved in a tragic auto accident. We were deeply saddened by her loss. As shared by her father, Jeff Dean, “Madison was so much into landscaping, designing, and anything to do with plants and the outdoors. She was hoping for acceptance into the LAEP program in the future. She loved attending Utah State University, and had many friends and she loved living in Logan! Her spirit will live on in LAEP and at Utah State University.

Eligibility:

Eligible students must be undergraduate or graduate students enrolled in the LAEP Department, and not in their final semester of study. 

Selection Process:

Students will not apply for this scholarship, but instead the recipient will be selected by the faculty in spring semester on the basis of their outstanding achievements while studying in the program. The award will be announced at the LAEP Banquet in spring and granted to the returning student the following semester.

Recipients:

Background:

Art and design were always a part of Richard Toth's life. His interest in landscape architecture started in his youth, and he pursued it passionately throughout his life. His study at the Harvard Graduate School of Design was the springboard into a career of studying large-scale issues related to the environment and Bioregional Planning. His first academic appointment was in 1965 at the University of Pennsylvania, which led him to join the faculty at the Harvard Graduate School of Design in 1968. His love of the great outdoors and the Intermountain region led him to accept a faculty position at USU in the LAEP Department in 1972, where he served as faculty and Department Head. After 21 years in LAEP, he moved to USU's College of Natural Resources, where he worked tirelessly for 12 more years. Dick believed in paying back the society that was paying his salary by helping them with their environmental planning and design problems.

Eligibility:

Recipients will be selected according to the following criteria:

• Students shall be enrolled full-time in the first year of the MLA or MS in Bioregional Planning programs.
• Be a graduate student in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning.
• Students shall be non-resident in status who show outstanding promise for success in graduate studies and as future professionals.

Selection Process:

This award is given based on LAEP faculty nomination of a deserving student. There is no application for this award, and when it is given, the recipient will be announced at the annual awards banquet in the spring.

Recipients:

Background:

The Utah ASLA Memorial Fund began with a donation by the family of Utah landscape architect Happ Young, in his memory.  The fund, established before the Utah Chapter of ASLA was split from the Rocky Mountain Chapter in the early 1970’s, was intended to grow and eventually provide scholarships for students, although much of it was in fact given to the ASLA Building Fund for the purchase of the national ASLA headquarters in Washington, DC. The fund was replenished in the 1980’s by a donation from Utah ASLA and Karsten Hansen, sometimes known as “The Father of Landscape Architecture in Utah.” After his death, the suggestion was made to name the fund after him, but in the end it was simply called the Memorial Fund, to honor the memory not just of Happ Young and Karsten Hansen, but of all the members of the Utah Chapter of ASLA who have passed away. The purpose of the fund was defined as providing visibility for the profession and benefits to the general community in Utah. The scholarship was established in 2012 for students in the LAEP Department at USU, with the first award granted in 2013.

Eligibility:

Eligible students must be landscape architecture majors enrolled in their junior year or the 1st or 2nd-year of the graduate program and must be student members of National ASLA and the LAEP Student Chapter of ASLA. 

Selection Process:

The recipient will be selected by the faculty in spring semester on the basis of academic performance and demonstrated potential to provide visibility to the profession and benefits to the general community in Utah.

Students will apply through the USU scholarship system. The recipient will be announced at the Departmental Awards Banquet in April and the award will be applied to the student's financial aid the following year. 

Recipients: