The Loy McCandless Marks Scholarship (an International Scholarship in Tropical Horticulture or Landscape Architecture)
School: master’s student, Landscape Architecture, The University of Arizona

Arid Realities: Evaluating the Adaptive Strategies of Drought-Tolerant Vegetation at El Charco del Ingenio Botanical Gardens

Hesla’s study will provide insights for conservation efforts in arid ecosystems facing environmental challenges.

The Loy McCandless Marks Scholarship (an International Scholarship in Tropical Horticulture or Landscape Architecture)
School: master’s student, Dual Degree Program: Landscape Architecture/Architecture, Illinois Institute of Technology

Tropical Streets throughout the Atlantic Dark Coast

Gaston’s botanical illustrations of historically significant tropical streets in New Orleans, Rio de Janeiro, and Salvador de Bahia will increase awareness and preservation efforts of these sites.

The Loy McCandless Marks Scholarship (an International Scholarship in Tropical Horticulture or Landscape Architecture)
School: Master’s student, Landscape Architecture, University of Washington

Landscape Design Work and Research in Tokyo

Janeski will intern at a small landscape architecture firm in Tokyo. Janeski will restore ecological function to a residential garden complex in Tokushima using only the resources available onsite. The design work will complement studies at Chiba University which will focus on local design, building practices, and cultural expression within landscapes.

The Loy McCandless Marks Scholarship (an International Scholarship in Tropical Horticulture or Landscape Architecture)
School: Master’s student, Landscape Architecture, University of Virginia

Fibers of Resilience: Multiscalar Architectural Adaptability and Ethnobotanical Traditions of the Uru People

Maffie will explore the relationship between indigenous horticultural traditions and architectural knowledge as a form of self-determination and environmental resilience in Peru. Totora, a keystone species in Lake Titicaca that supports the architectural construction of the Uru’s living homes and archipelagic floating islands, will be studied. Maffie will administer ethnographic interviews, document landscape architectural details, draw on horticultural traditions, and conduct geospatial mapping to reveal otherwise hidden geographies. The project will promote an understanding of the international interdependence of horticulture and will disseminate the ways in which vernacular landscapes provide a form of resilience.

The Loy McCandless Marks Scholarship (an International Scholarship in Tropical Horticulture or Landscape Architecture)

Influence of Developmental Stage and Life History on Leaf Traits in Tropical Rain Forest Trees

The Loy McCandless Marks Scholarship (an International Scholarship in Tropical Horticulture or Landscape Architecture)

Who Planted the Forest? Working with a Lacandon Maya Community in Chiapas, Mexico, to Quantify the Roles of Dispersal Agents in Tropical Forests

In collaboration with the Lacandon Maya community of Lacanjá Chansayab in Chiapas, Mexico, Capito will assess dispersal mechanisms by surveying trees within the community’s traditional, successive agroforestry system. Capito’s work will establish baseline ecological interactions between tree and dispersal species, information that can be used as a reference for future restoration or conservation efforts and to preserve the traditional ecological knowledge for future generations within the community.

The Loy McCandless Marks Scholarship (an International Scholarship in Tropical Horticulture or Landscape Architecture)

Benjamin Proulx is a master’s student in landscape architecture with a focus in Latin American studies at the University
of Georgia. His research looks at the benefits of integrating agricultural and ornamental landscapes. He will participate in a study abroad program at the University of Georgia’s Costa Rica campus, where he will work on the redesign of the San Luis Botanical Garden. Architecture students from the University of Costa Rica will collaborate on a design proposal for the Torres riverside community of Los Cipreses in Barrio México, San José, Costa Rica.

The Loy McCandless Marks Scholarship (an International Scholarship in Tropical Horticulture or Landscape Architecture)
Aqsa Butt, originally a native of Pakistan, now a citizen of the United States, is a junior at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She is currently working toward a Bachlor of Science in the Landscape Architecture Program. Ms. Butt has been approved to be a full time University of Massachusetts student for a semester study abroad at National University of Ireland, Maynooth. She will explore tropical botanical horticulture interests at four micro climate locations on the southwestern coast of County Cork. 

The Loy McCandless Marks Scholarship (an International Scholarship in Tropical Horticulture or Landscape Architecture)
School: Senior at the College of Environment and Design at the University of Georgia
Will spend a semester at the Monteverde Cloud Forest in Costa Rica compiling a journal of tropical plants that have both ornamental and edible/useful qualities.
Project location: Costa Rica

The Loy McCandless Marks Scholarship (an International Scholarship in Tropical Horticulture or Landscape Architecture)
School: Cornell University Lincoln University - New Zealand
Project: "Use of orchids in SE Asia and companion plants in landscape planting."
Project location: SE Asia