Summer Intensives Start Next Month: 2 Students Share Their Experience

Posted in Adult Education on June 1 2015, by Plant Talk

NYBG Landscape Design student Danielle Faustini is on a crazy mission.

Last week, she started working at a Manhattan landscape design firm, while completing freelance projects and wrapping up her education in The New York Botanical Garden’s Certificate Program in anticipation of graduation on June 7.

Faustini’s education started in last summer’s Landscape Design Summer Intensive, an expedited five-week program that covers half of all required classroom hours toward a prestigious NYBG Certificate. In one year, she finished the required 350 hours, while working full-time as a server in a restaurant and doing freelance design work on the side—hence the crazy.

“Life is short, you know?” Faustini said. “I told myself I would complete the Certificate Program within a year. It definitely wasn’t easy, but you set your mind to something, and you do it.”

Faustini and her Summer Intensive classmate George Siriotis, who also completed the Certificate Program in a year, saw the Intensive as an opportunity to jump into a new career with the support of like-minded, ambitious peers and industry-professional instructors.

“You get this very real, down-to-earth approach on how to design in the real world, as well as on the profession as a whole,” Faustini said. “By the end of the Intensive, I felt I had gained such a wealth of information in such a short time,” Faustini said.

Similarily, Siriotis said, “The program gives you a broad exposure to the field, and you walk away with some very specific drawing and design skills you likely didn’t have when you started. I also appreciated the opportunity to take classes in computer-aided design, as I’m finding these skills are sought after in the industry.”

Siriotis, who left his executive position at a health insurance company he worked at for over 20 years, learned about the NYBG Landscape Design Program in a way some might describe as a fate.

“I was walking my dog one day, and one of my neighbors and I were chatting about life and what to do next,” he said. “She mentioned she completed the Intensive the prior summer and suggested I check out the program.”

After a few days of research, he enrolled and was immediately hooked on landscape design.

“I was immersed in a brand-new world of creative thinking and problem solving,” he said. Another enticing element was “having The New York Botanical Garden as your playground.”

Siriotis has since started his own firm, the aptly named Transitions Landscape Design, LLC, working currently on residential projects, with the intention to connect with an established design/build company to work on larger projects. He also works part-time at a local garden center, where he is gaining even more hands-on plant knowledge and answering customers’ design questions.

 

Landscape design is more than just a career—it’s a way to change the world for the better. Landscape designers—Fausitini and Siriotis both believe—have an opportunity to help alleviate environmental and ecological concerns through storm water management, reducing pollution via planting, or reducing the energy a building wastes using green roofs.

“Landscape design is playing a vital role in the fight to make this world a better place,” Faustini said.

On a smaller scale, the industry is dedicated to renovating spaces and creating retreats.

“For me, it’s about leaving a space that’s more beautiful and functional than you found it,” Siriotis said. “Landscape design gives people a personal retreat that brings them happiness, where they can relax after a long day of work, or enjoy celebrations with family and friends.”

Both students completed the Intensive with the certainty they were pursuing the right field, and they encourage others to embrace opportunities to make a necessary change.

“It’s never too late to try something new,” Siriotis said. “Figure out how to make it work, and just go for it.”

Faustini’s advice comes with a friendly warning: “Be prepared to put in a lot of hours,” she said. “But it is so worth it.”

Adults thinking about a career change or delving further into training in Floral Design, Gardening, Landscape Design, Botanical Art & Illustration, or Horticultural Therapy, can enroll in the Garden’s Summer Intensive Programs, beginning July 13. Learn more about Summer Intensives.