ASLA President-elect Candidates Field Questions
LAND Online asks what steps candidates would like to see ASLA take to encourage more students to enter the field.

In the first of three questions for this year’s President-elect candidates, LAND Online notes ASLA’s push to expand school-aged children’s understanding of and interest in landscape architecture during National Landscape Architecture Month. How would the candidates, if elected, help raise awareness of landscape architecture among young people?

Below are their responses:

Angela Dye, ASLA:

Today, with the emphasis on testing for basic skills and knowledge to measure performance of students, teachers, and schools, teaching of the arts has suffered. This situation will have an impact on the future of the design professions, including landscape architecture. Since principles of design have not typically been integrated into school curriculums, and considering that most of us have had our own unique and sometimes circuitous paths of discovery to become landscape architects, it has become paramount to bring design, its principles, and the integration of science and the arts through landscape architecture, to K-12 education.

Rather than lament today’s learning environment, I believe ASLA and its members have an opportunity to fill the void and can play an important role in changing the current direction of K-12 education. Without renewed emphasis and effort on our parts to teach the link between design and science, we cannot expect future generations to understand how important landscape architecture is to making a difference in the world.

Teachers from preschool to high school are always looking for simple ways to enrich their curriculum and broaden their teaching subject matter. I propose that ASLA provide a forum to bring together interested teachers from preschools to high schools, interested members and chapters, and our knowledgeable staff to explore ways that students can learn about landscape architecture and our unique approach to problem solving, collaboration, and environmental sustainability. This collaborative approach with educators can inform us as to how to reach, involve, and motivate students to recognize design, learn to apply problem-solving principles, and enhance their awareness of the environment in order to shape their future. ASLA can become the catalyst for teaching a broader and enriched curriculum.

This approach goes one step beyond the ACE mentoring program to develop landscape architecture-specific materials for teachers that will blend design principles of problem solving with environmental sustainability issues, using a variety of tools from the Internet to experiential learning. Several successful programs such as the Future Cities program for middle and high school students and the Teaching Masterpieces in Artprogram for elementary grades could be used as models to develop these materials.

Together with teachers and educators, we can help students make the connection between their future and their environment. One intent should be to motivate students to explore a career in landscape architecture, but if conceived of broadly enough, this approach has the potential to influence future generations to always associate landscape architecture with environmental problem solving and to view landscape architects as essential to a sustainable future. As president, I will help to make this program come to life.

Gary Kesler, FASLA:

The 2007 NLAM theme of Discover Careers in Landscape Architecture was an excellent choice that engaged the profession broadly in developing ideas around this issue. The range of activities is impressive; see http://www.asla.org/lamonth/activities2007.html. Many focus on disseminating information about the profession including the offering of public lectures, visiting schools, and sponsoring public events such as visits to exemplary projects, design workshops, and garden tours. At the national level, prominent speakers will be hosted at the National Building Museum, and letters have been sent to college admission counselors at secondary schools across the country asking their support in promoting landscape architecture as a career path. To be successful, we must continue such proactive initiatives at national, regional, and local levels, involving offices and agencies, chapters and individual members, allied organizations and academic programs. I would also encourage dialogue, review, and possible partnerships with other associations that are currently developing educational standards and programs for middle and high school students that promote knowledge about design, the built environment, and career opportunities, such as:

· American Architectural Foundation’s “Redesign Your School Contest”
· Cultural Landscape Foundation’s “Cultural Landscapes as Classrooms”
· Chicago Architecture Foundation’s “Schoolyards to Skylines” K-8 curriculum
· National Geographic Society’s “My Wonderful World Campaign”

The ACE (Architecture, Engineering, and Construction) mentor program, which ASLA just recently signed onto as a partner, also offers considerable potential for introducing high school students to careers in landscape architecture.

The fact that we need more and better students entering and graduating from our professional degree programs has been known for some time. Professors Ron Stoltz and Cameron Man brought this to our attention in the early 1990s, and Jot Carpenter and Horst Schach drew attention to the issue again several years ago. A recent study by the ASLA Council on Education examined issues of recruiting, program capacity, and number of graduates and indicated that while the number of graduates has grown some (approximately 2.5 percent a year since 1990), it is falling well short of current and anticipated future demand. So this is an important question…What do we do to not only raise awareness of the profession, but to promote landscape architecture as a viable career option to prospective students of all ages?

We must recognize that if the objective is more professionals, raising awareness is just the first of a series of steps to success. Academic programs will need to follow through with successful recruitment in an environment that is becomingly increasing competitive. Since most of our existing programs are at capacity, we will need to work with educators to increase the number of new programs and the capacity of existing programs, as well as develop strategies for retaining students through what we all know to be a relatively time demanding and costly program of study. I believe we can do this, and in fact we must, if our offices and agencies are to evolve with the type of qualified personnel necessary to sustain their futures and realize their visions of landscape architecture as a profession.