President's Report: FLASLA Goes Back to School

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Growing up in Syracuse, NY in the 1980s, being a landscape architect was not something my friends and I aspired to or even knew what the profession truly was. While exploring colleges, I was focused on architecture, when my uncle suggested landscape architecture. After attending a recruitment event at Syracuse University, I came up with, a then "logical" thought... "If you build a building and the foundation fails you're in big trouble but if you mis-plant a tree in a park no one will notice." Of course years later I better understood my misplaced logic, but it was my 16 year old self that set the course for my career.

Throughout my education and career, I have been fortunate to have wonderful mentors. I am most grateful for their guidance and support. As chapter president, I am committed to creating a platform for the EXCOM to engage our state's landscape architecture students and young professionals. On February 20th, we will hold our EXCOM meeting at the University of Florida where we will participate in the first annual Ed Stone Lecture Series, meet with students, and tour the program. In April, we will do a similar visit to Florida International University.

I encourage our members to join us and help mentor those starting out in the profession. Our profession in Florida has a large gap in our emerging professionals, as a result of the Great Recession. Young professionals are the foundation for our profession's future success. Without a solid foundation our "building" may fail...maybe my 16 year old logic wasn't so far off!

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