The Green Campus and Beyond by Grace

The Green Campus and Beyond by Grace - February 2024 Scholarship Essay

My journey of discovering Landscape Architecture was filled with many twists and turns. For over four years, I believed Graphic Design was my passion after drawing all my life. Though I still enjoyed it outside of class, this was disproven after a few graphics classes in high school. Then I began exploring 3D modeling, convinced I should become an Industrial Designer as I loved 3D modeling and enjoyed working in a team. Yet the work environment and products of the Industrial Design sparkled little joy for me. I was closer to the correct career, but something was still missing. As I hemmed and hawed, time was running out to choose my college.

The clock started after graduation. While friends ground through college applications, I worked on art projects and got a job at a local escape room. My gap year gave me an extra year to plan for college so there was little rush. I thought I had it all figured out. After watching my friends leave, I started to sweat. College was not a cheap decision, and in my mind, I had to get my school and major right the first time because I was a year behind. Growing up, I was encouraged to consider Michigan State University. But MSU never seemed like the school for me. It was too close, too big, too “safe". Yet every time my Odyssey of the Mind team placed in the World Competition, I relished the event when MSU hosted it. The campus was covered in plants, trees, and grass; so much green. Such a shame it wouldn't be my campus.

Hunched over my laptop, I worried about my dwindling college options. My father bemoaned the expensive out-of-state options, as those were the only schools with Industrial Design majors that would accept me. Half lying to him and myself, I expressed my sadness about passing on MSU, because I would become a student if they had my major. He was right, though. Desperate, I revisited the school I had avoided for so long. Halfheartedly looking through the list of offered majors, one major stood out. Landscape Architecture? Well. That sounded interesting.

Once I began researching Landscape Architecture, I couldn’t stop. Everything clicked. All the time I spent in our garden at home, all the architecture sims I played, Odyssey of the Mind, the 3D modeling, the graphics, the drawing, everything. It all made sense. Nature was the missing piece in Industrial Design and in my life. Plants, flowers, leaves; green. In light of this new information about myself, I quit my Target grocery stocking job and started working at a greenhouse. There, I was the happiest I had ever been at a job. Listening to customer projects, helping them find the perfect plant, and problem-solving backyard solutions gave me my first taste of Landscape Architecture, one I'm chasing to this day.

Even in my 3rd year, I'm still brimming with excitement. The Landscape Architecture world is new to me and my classmates; our final paths are still unclear. Some of us will work in therapeutic gardens. Others will explore in residential design, or even zoos. Though my future specialty is uncertain, I am leaning toward ecological conservation and reducing environmental inequality. But for now, I begrudgingly march to class with a suitcase full of art materials and the knowledge that I made the right choice.