Named for Frederick Law Olmsted, the father of American landscape architecture, the Olmsted Scholars Program is the premier national award program for landscape architecture students. It recognizes one outstanding student from each accredited landscape architecture program in the U.S. and Canada, along with the jury-selected graduate and undergraduate national award winners and finalists. Students are both honored for past achievements and recognized for their future potential to influence the landscape architecture profession.
Olmsted Scholars are recognized as students with exceptional leadership potential who are using ideas, influence, communication, service, and leadership to advance sustainable design and foster human and societal benefits.
Among the 2018 recipients is Zhimin ‘Emily’ Yang, an MLA student at IIT Architecture and president of the college's ASLA Student chapter. Zhimin is from Shanghai, China, where she earned her Bachelor of Agronomy and Horticulture. Her love for the environment and enthusiasm for creative pursuits led her to landscape architecture. Through professional endeavors, she intends to utilize sustainable ecological systems to solve urban environmental problems and restore a harmonious relationship between humans and nature. As president of the ASLA IIT student chapter, she has organized events including visits to the many gardens and parks in Chicago, landscape architecture firm tours and a team field trip to the upper Mississippi River and Wisconsin River.