MLA Graduate Experiences

Landscape Designer, SCAPE Creativity and collaboration flourished—encouraged by the diversity of scholarship inside the Department and synergies with other Departments ranging from ecology, forestry, agriculture, planning and art. It was great fit for me as a second-career student, interested in exploring the amazing breadth of interdisciplinary work in the field Landscape Architecture.

Assistant Landscape Architect at NYC Department of Parks & Recreation The 4+1 MLA Program allowed me to further explore the interconnected nature of social categorizations as they apply to place and space. I was able to develop my interest in archival research and historical narratives, understanding the relationship of marginalized people and the built landscape. I benefited from having professors that understood my strengths and weaknesses and motivated me to continue to ask the questions that challenge the way we think about people and space.

Creative Director, National Consortium for Creative Placemaking The Rutgers MLA program taught me about how stories in all their forms—storytelling, listening, experiencing—are critical to understanding the human experience and our relation to the land and places around us. This program has empowered me to learn…how stories are used to engage and build better communities.

Landscape Architect,M/s. Prabhakar B. Bhagwat(Landscapeindia) The Roy DeBoer travel scholarship I received from the Rutgers MLA program provided me the opportunity to travel the Netherlands to study their water management practices. This global exposure has played a vital role in my personal development and the skills that I developed have allowed me to work anywhere in the world. In fact, I received a job offer even before I graduated with the same employer in Rotterdam whom I had interviewed for my travel prize research.

Landscape Architecture Instructor,South Dakota State University The Rutgers MLA provides a flexible yet rigorous course of study that challenged me while providing new insights and directions for my individual exploration. With guidance and instruction from the experienced and dedicated faculty I was able to complete my studies culminating in a thorough research effort suitable for continued exploration at an academic institution. Within one year of completing my studies, I was offered and accepted an instructor position as my first step on a new career path.

Junior Landscape Architect at MKW + Associates The 4+1 program taught me that there are many voices in a design and that the loudest voice should be the community who you are designing for. The faculty and staff here at the Rutgers MLA program taught me how to be open and receiving of the voices that are often ignored and to design a space that would serve their community.

PHD Candidate, Urban Planning Rutgers University The flexibility of the program, combined with all of the resources available at Rutgers, allowed me to pursue my interests and follow questions to their source. I would not be on my current path without the foundation created by the MLA program and the faculty who make it what it is.

Jr. Landscape Architect NY State Dept. of Transportation As one of three of the first students in the 4+1 program, I ultimately learned that there are a multitude of unrecognized and unheard voices. Faculty members reminded me that it is not always our duty to create and design for the community, but rather be their listener. I was encouraged and guided to see outside of my design eyes and to always remember to be a human first.

Landscape Designer, OLIN The dedicated and diverse faculty insist on a rigorous, pragmatic grounding in landscape architecture. Yet within that practical learning process, each helped me to elevate my creative impulses and encouraged me to soar. I emerged from the program with the skills I need to build a career and the confidence to pursue my passions.