LA Program Updates from Lisa Orr

Well, the most obvious update is the newsletter! The newsletter is meant to reconnect alumni with

each other and to the program. The hope is also to get more alumni involved for the students, too.  

We already get so many alumni reaching out for students to work after graduation. Ideally, I’d like to see more alumni offer internships and get involved in the Day of Design. Alumni can come see the caliber of our students and the kind of work they produce on Day of Design and consider more seriously starting internships at their places of business.

Some exciting news is the program's new plan to increase enrollment.  

A big piece of that is a recruitment video, which we've never done before. Once it’s ready, we’ll send it in the newsletter for alumni to see and share.

As another way to boost recruitment, the landscape architecture advisory committee is fundraising for scholarships, experiential learning and technology. For scholarships, the goal is to increase both the number and variety of scholarships available to students. Experiential learning is about internships, which are required for the major.  

Our students are very sought after because they’re incredibly well prepared. They’re technically qualified. That’s not a problem for them. What is a problem for them is paying to live somewhere while they’re doing the internship. We don’t want money to stop a great student from becoming a great landscape architect.

In general, there aren’t many plans for change right now. We are up for accreditation in 2023, which happens every six years. It’s important that there aren’t massive changes to the program. Preparing for accreditation is no small undertaking: collecting all of the student work from the last five years, website updates, self-evaluation.  

We do well with accreditation and we typically sail through it. We don’t want to rock the boat in the midst of going through that very intense process.

Thanks for keeping us with us, 

Lisa

-WVU-

ls/8/16/22

CONTACT: Leah Smith

Interim Director of Marketing and Communications

304-290-8680; lnestor2@mail.wvu.edu