Andy Polefrone

Andy Polefrone comes to the study of landscape architecture from a background in fine art.  A 2010 graduate of Cornell University with a BFA in Studio Art, he believes that “the act of manipulating the material world around us encodes within it our priorities, our politics and our hopes for our living environment.” 

Having won a competitive ARTA Travel Fellowship at the OSU Knowlton School of Architecture in 2018, Andy traveled to Medellin, Columbia to study urban agriculture in the form of self-built landscapes.  He discovered that the residents of the Comunas neighborhoods regularly use sophisticated planting strategies to solve a range of issues such as the stabilization of landslide-prone hillsides, manage stormwater run-off, and to provide food, natural medicines and weaving materials.  With increasing development, many of these landscapes are at risk.  Andy will be returning to Medellin this spring to work with community groups and the local planning organization to better understand and protect these gardens. Andy has elected to pursue the full master’s thesis option, and hopes that by documenting the process he will undertake in Columbia that he can provide a framework for future collaborations.

His professor says he is “one of the most creative and diligent designers and researchers I have had the privilege of teaching.”

UPDATE MAY 2020---

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Andy will revise his research to focus on domestic urban agriculture and self-built landscapes and will no longer plan to travel to Colombia.

Jenna Happach

A Master’s in Landscape Architecture student at the University of Michigan, Jenna Happach hopes to apply her passion for plant and soil ecology to create spaces that are environmentally sensitive while honoring the historical, cultural, social and economic aspects of a project.  She is concerned that ecological sustainability is not currently a well-developed element of landscape planning and design, and would like to help bridge that gap through knowledge and communication.  She is specifically interested in projects related to restoration ecology and ecological design and native plant propagation and landscaping.

While obtaining her Bachelor’s degree in Biology and Ecology from Northern Michigan University, she participated in two National Science Foundation Summer Research Experiences, in Hawaii and at Cornell University.  A third summer internship as an Ecological Monitoring Technician at Great Basin Institute in Nevada was followed by a year in West Virginia with Restoration Americorps, in the Appalachian Forest National Heritage Area.

Jenna is committed to environmental stewardship and education.  Her professor, Bob Grese, an Honorary Member of the GCA, says “I fully expect her to be a clear leader in the field, using skills in horticulture, ecology, landscape architecture, and environmental education to make a difference.” 

Zack Fox

Zack Fox was a 2019 recipient of a $3,500 Katharine M. Grosscup scholarship. He is now a junior at Hiram College in Hiram, Ohio studying Environmental Sciences and Natural History.  He is the President of the Environmental Action Crew, and the founder and Chairman of the Student Senate Sustainable Development Committee.  He is employed by the college as the Land Conservation Steward at the James H. Barrow Biological Field Station, and an assistant in the Environmental Studies Department.

The Associate Professor of Environmental Studies said “Zack has been spearheading a movement on campus to research and implement a composting program to deal with the problem of food waste and to help maintain healthy soil in our campus gardens.  He’s undertaken research, visited other campuses to learn about their composting operations, and took a bonus 1-credit hour class on composting (the offering of which Zack catalyzed), all on his own time.  Zack is a rare blend of reliable hard worker and intellectually curious aspiring botanist.”

Kassandra Hernandez

Kassandra Hernandez completed her Associate Degree in Plant Science and Landscape Technology at Cuyahoga Community College with a GPA of 4.0 in December of 2019.  She was selected as the student speaker at their Winter Graduation Ceremony.  She has now embarked on the next step of her education, enrolling as a junior at Ohio State University, studying Sustainable Plant Systems with a Specialization in Horticulture.  

While at Tri-C, Kasandra was part of their 2019 National Collegiate Landscape Team  and according to her professor, played a major role in helping them to reach an overall 3rd place finish.  She has interned at a wholesale nursery, a landscape management company, and most recently at Davey Institute Plant and Soil Laboratories where she gained an appreciation for biomechanics and plant diagnostics.

Kasandra has an outgoing personality, a natural gift for leadership and is passionate about science. As a Latina-American she sees a great need to expand the skill set and knowledge of the Hispanic workers who are the backbone of the landscaping/nursery industry.  Writing that she would like to “give them the tools needed to see it more as a career path rather than just a job” she believes that she can make a difference.

 Tanner Prewitt

Tanner Prewitt is in his final year of the 5-year Landscape Architecture Program at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana.  He is the president of the Ball State student chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects and holds leadership positions in the College student publication.  He has presented twice at the National Collegiate Honors Council. In 2018 his topic was “A Garden of Thrones: An Allegorical Landscape” and in 2019 “Either a Caesar or Nothing: Reimagining the Borgia’s Vatican.”  He has also taken advantage of an opportunity to travel to Germany for a summer study tour on urban planning.

Internships during the past two summers at a small landscape architecture firm in southern Indiana have increased his understanding of the day-to-day administrative and practical side of the profession, things he will need to master as he joins the profession after graduation.  He says that his “third year planting design studio opened my eyes to a horticultural world I knew existed but hadn’t understood the breadth of…….researching native species, learning about region-specific genotypes, finding the proper colors, textures and shapes to create a living tapestry.  For me, the natural world became of the utmost importance, the client the profession often forgets.”

Megan Herrmann

Megan Herrmann writes “the changing climate and urbanization of land are making habitats more uniform by enabling a winner species to proliferate, a process called biotic homogenization.”  This is the focus of her research in the Masters of Environmental Science/Plant Ecology degree program at Cleveland State University.  Her thesis will examine the composition of vacant lot plant and soil communities along a rural to urban gradient.  The project involves surveying the plant communities aboveground and using gene sequencing to survey the belowground soil community composition. 

With a Bachelor’s degree in Biology and Geology from Oberlin College, Megan has a strong background in science.  Previous research experiences include a semester abroad at the School of International Training’s Coastal Ecology and Natural Resource Management program in Zanzibar, Tanzania, and fieldwork in the Caribbean surveying a coral reef.  Following her college graduation in May 2017 she spent the summer working as a Biological Science Aid for the US Forest Service at the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest in Montana. 

This research will help fill the gaps in the literature concerning the treatment of urban areas as heterogenous spaces, and explicitly links plant and soil communities in urban areas.  All laboratory procedures will be conducted in collaboration with the Holden Arboretum. 

Patricia Cordero-Irizarry

As a high school student in Puerto Rico, Patricia Cordero-Irizarry was struck by the statistic that 85% of the food consumed on the island, an ideal growing environment, is imported.  Concerned and determined to make a change she obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Crop Protection, with a minor in Professional and Practical Ethics.  Now a Master’s degree graduate student at the Ohio State University School of Environment and Natural Resources with a focus on Soil Science, she has been accepted into the department of Dr. Rattan Lal, Director of the Carbon Management and Sequestration Center.

Patricia will use her scholarship to return to Puerto Rico this summer to conduct a research project entitled “Land use-management in tropical weathered soils: evaluation of organic carbon stocks in Jayuya, Puerto Rico.”  Her focus will be the avocado, a perennial crop underutilized on the island.  Dr. Lal notes “her research may illustrate the steps that must be taken to redirect food production into a sustainable direction, one that will decrease environmental damage and serve to mitigate climate change by increasing carbon sequestration in tropical soils.”

Patricia’s mentor in the program is Nall Moonilall, a 2014 / 2015 Grosscup scholar who is currently completing his doctorate.