Landscape Design Students Get to Work
Posted in Adult Education on June 29 2016, by Elizabeth Fisher
Landscape designers play a pivotal role as society deals with the fundamental question of how our public and private land is used. Their designs improve the outdoor environments surrounding us in rural areas, urban settings, and suburban yards. At the Garden, aspiring landscape designers receive the instruction—and inspiration—they need to create those gorgeous and sustainable green spaces.
This past month, in a Garden ceremony, 14 graduates received their Landscape Design Certificates. Elizabeth Poccia, the featured student speaker at the ceremony, credits NYBG with helping her find her passion.
“The countless hours I spend doing work never really feels like work,” she said in her graduation remarks. “The New York Botanical Garden helped me turn a dream I never knew I had into a reality. …I never anticipated learning the amount that I know now in such a short span of time.”
Poccia is now an Assistant Designer for Landscape Design Associates of Westchester, Inc., working primarily on designing and drafting residential projects that include formal planting design as well as hardscape design for patios and outdoor kitchen and pool areas.
Maria Gonzales-Paredes, Poccia’s fellow graduate, is diving just as eagerly into Landscape Design. Gonzales-Paredes, who also earned a Horticulture Certificate this year in Sustainable Garden Design, has started her own firm, Kini Landscape Design, and will work both in New York and her native Mexico.
Like many students, Maria’s desire for a career change inspired her to enroll in the Certificate program, but it was the Garden’s blend of unmatched resources and beautiful grounds that really drew her in. That’s an asset other educational institutions don’t have.
“NYBG provides my favorite way to learn—outdoor classes in amazing gardens,” Maria said.
These graduates now belong to a large and influential network of NYBG Landscape Design alumni working across the Metropolitan area and beyond. These include Tom Lawson (2013), owner of Mad Gardener, LLC; Danielle Faustini (2015), who landed a job as designer at Plant Fantasies, Inc. before she even graduated while simultaneously starting her own business, Helix Green, LLC; George Siriotis (2015), former health insurance executive who now owns Transitions Landscape Design, LLC; Susan Welti (1996), a former professional dancer and now owner of Foras Studio, whose work has been featured in Elle Décor; and 2016 graduate Wendy Ford, who is already taking on private clients!
If you’re serious about Landscape Design, this summer could be your chance to get started. The Summer Intensives, now in its 27th year, lets you complete half of the required classroom hours for the prestigious NYBG Certificate, in just over five weeks. Register now for the 2016 Summer Intensive, starting Monday, July 11. Get more information.
