The Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF) has announced the 91 exceptional student leaders honored as 2025 LAF Olmsted Scholars, including the two national winners and six finalists. 

Issam Azzam, a master's student at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, was selected as the graduate 2025 National Olmsted Scholar and recipient of the $25,000 prize. With family roots in the Faiyum Oasis in Egypt and a background in desert ecology, Issam has seen the challenges oasis communities face as a result of climate change and resource exploitation. Building from his past work, he plans to use the award to expand ecological monitoring and socio-cultural documentation and create a platform for knowledge exchange among oasis communities. He aims to highlight that oases can be sustainable blueprints for the future and increase the role of landscape architecture in the critical dialogue on arid landscapes worldwide. 

Olive Tang, a student at the University of California, Davis, was selected as the undergraduate 2025 National Olmsted Scholar and recipient of the $15,000 prize. She is interested in Privately Owned Public Open Spaces (POPOS) – spaces open to the public in exchange for zoning concessions. As municipal and federal funding declines, she sees the potential of POPOS but is concerned that their tighter restrictions and security measures can be exclusionary. Olive plans to use her award to observe POPOS in San Francisco and develop recommendations for their design and management to be more equitable and welcoming. Through this collaborative effort, she seeks to ensure that this increasingly common form of "public" open space is truly serving the public.  

Also honored are six National Olmsted Scholar Finalists. The graduate finalists, who each receive a $5,000 award, are:  

• Sarah Chu, University of Washington 
• Grace Diebel, University of California, Berkeley 
• Taylor Jais, Rhode Island School of Design 

The undergraduate finalists, who each receive a $3,000 award, are:  

• Sarah AbuDakar, The Ohio State University 
• Caleb Austin, University of Maryland  
• Megan Laffey, University of Florida 

Two independent juries selected the winners and finalists from a group of 53 master’s and 38 bachelor’s students who were nominated by their faculty for their exceptional leadership potential. These students each earn the designation of 2025 LAF Olmsted Scholar and join a community of 1,254 LAF Olmsted Scholars named since the program’s inception. 

Now in its 18th year, the LAF Olmsted Scholars Program is the premier leadership recognition program for landscape architecture students. It is made possible with support from: Coldspring, Design Workshop, EDSA, Field Operations, Hart Howerton, HOK, IRONSMITH, LandDesign, OJB, OLIN, Sasaki, Stantec, SWA, Victor Stanley, Steven G. King, FASLA, and Bill and Kathy Main, Hon. ASLA. Promotion Partner: American Society of Landscape Architects. 

The 2025 Olmsted Scholars will be recognized at LAF’s 40th Annual Benefit on Friday, October 10 in New Orleans, held in conjunction with the ASLA 2025 Conference on Landscape Architecture. 

See the entire group of 2025 Olmsted Scholars at: 

https://www.lafoundation.org/news/2025/05/2025-olmsted-scholars