Third-year Master of Landscape Architecture student Stefan Herda is among the 17 scholars chosen by the Landscape Architecture Canada Foundation to receive one of its 2021/22 scholarships.

Every year the Ottawa-based LACF bestows the awards to two national and 15 regional winners across Canada. The scholarships are awarded to landscape architecture students who display “superior academic performance, promote leadership, and encourage original and creative design work and research,” according to the Foundation.

“I am humbled to have been selected by the LACF for the award,” says Toronto-based Herda, whose regional win was officially marked during an online celebration on February 11. “There is so much to learn in landscape architecture, and I appreciate being recognized early on in the journey.”

Herda’s “enthusiasm for traditional ecological knowledge, land stewardship and cultivating landscape literacy” were cited among the reasons for his selection.

Stefan Herda has undertaken research projects that analyze the environmental impacts of sites such as the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station in Ontario.

“Every recipient had a chance to introduce themselves, discuss their research and interests, and [elaborate on] what inspired them to study landscape architecture,” says Herda, who found the virtual ceremony convenient since he and his fiancée have a newborn. “What was most compelling was the profound influence that local geography had on everyone’s work, the breadth of research, and how they focused on equity, climate justice, and truth and reconciliation.”

In addition to his fiancée, Herda credits his fellow classmates, his mentors at the Daniels Faculty, and Elder Whabagoon and the Nikibii Dawadinna Giigwag family for helping him achieve this milestone. “I would not be where I am without my classmates,” he says. “The Landscape Architecture faculty across the board at Daniels have been incredibly supportive of my interests over the last three years.”

One of the research projects that Herda has undertaken at the Daniels Faculty is Under the Humber, in which he and his Integrated Urbanism Studio classmates studied sites in Toronto (such as the point where the Humber River meets Lake Ontario) that they designated as needing some form of design intervention due to environmental, economic and social pressures.

To view more of Herda's work, click here.

Banner image: Master of Landscape Architecture student Stefan Herda was awarded a 2021/22 scholarship by the Landscape Architecture Canada Foundation. (Photo provided by Herda)