Washington, D.C., March 21, 2012 — Viviana Castro, Student ASLA, and Lynette Osinubi, Student ASLA, have been selected as the ASLA Council of Fellows (COF) Scholarship recipients for 2012. They each will get $4,000 to pursue their studies.

Castro first came to appreciate the importance of landscape architecture, particularly stormwater management, working summers in the poor, often-flooded hillside communities south of Bogata, Colombia, her native city. The outstanding third-year undergraduate student at the University of Florida Department of Landscape Architecture aspires to demonstrate by example that the profession is wide open to Latin American women. As a community volunteer, she shares her love of the profession and teaches others of the landscape architect’s value in strengthening cultural identity. She mentors minority high school students and encourages their interest in landscape architecture as a profession of choice.

Osinubi, as an undergraduate, already has her sights set on a doctorate in urban planning with a focus on how landscape architecture can improve living conditions in dense, underprivileged neighborhoods. A third-year student at the University of Georgia, she founded the Multicultural Society of Landscape Architecture to support her fellow minority students in pursuing landscape architecture. She draws inspiration from her parents, who immigrated to the U.S. from West Africa and struggle to support her professional pursuits. As a volunteer, she helps others learn the Yoruba language and is active in the Georgia Society of Landscape Architecture, the African Student Union, the Feminist Club, and the Athens, Ga., community.

Both students will attend the ASLA Annual Meeting and EXPO to receive their scholarship certificates at the COF Business Meeting on Monday, October 1, at 8:00 a.m. at the Phoenix Convention Center.

The ASLA Council of Fellows established this scholarship fund in 2004 to aid outstanding students in financial need, increase the participation in landscape architecture of economically disadvantaged and underrepresented populations, and enrich the profession through increased diversity. In addition to the scholarships, both women will also receive a one-year student ASLA membership, general registration fees for the ASLA Annual Meeting and EXPO, and a travel stipend to attend the meeting. The Landscape Architecture Foundation administers the scholarship on behalf of the ASLA Council of Fellows.