BYU’s landscaping program is dominating nationally
From left, McKayla Sundberg and Marco Crosland remove excess locking sand from an area of concrete pavers at BYU on Tuesday, April 24, 2018, in Provo. Both Sundberg and Crosland studied Landscape Management at BYU.
Stephen Gilliat, a sophomore at BYU, passes a bucket to Richard Fifita before they get to work on a section of concrete pavers at BYU on Tuesday, April 24, 2018, in Provo.
Stephen Gilliat, a sophomore at BYU, pours locking sand onto a section of pavers at BYU on Tuesday, April 24, 2018, in Provo. Gilliat works as a hardscape technician for BYU.
McKayla Sandburg, a junior majoring in Landscape Management at BYU, puts on a face mask before working on a section of concrete pavers on Tuesday, April 24, 2018, in Provo.
Marco Crosland, a graduating senior from BYU, uses a plate compactor on a section of concrete pavers at BYU on Tuesday, April 24, 2018, in Provo.
McKayla Sandburg, a junior majoring in Landscape Management at BYU, tosses water over a completed section of pavers on Tuesday, April 24, 2018, in Provo. The water activates the locking sand.
Richard Fifita, the hardscape foreman at BYU, carries a bucket of locking sand to a small area of finished concrete pavers at BYU on Tuesday, April 24, 2018, in Provo.
Stephen Gilliat, a sophomore at BYU, unloads equipment to work on finishing sections of concrete pavers on Tuesday, April 24, 2018, in Provo.
For a student graduating in the landscape management program at Brigham Young University, the question isn’t if they are going to get a job offer after graduation.
It’s how many job offers they’re going to get.
“It’s not an overstatement to indicate our students are the most highly-recruited students from across the country,” said Phil Allen, a professor in BYU’s landscape management program.
The program has made a name for itself nationally in the 15 years since it shifted its focus from horticulture to landscape management.
BYU won the National Collegiate Landscape Competition this year for the second year in a row. It has received six national titles in landscape management since 2003 and this year also had the top student performer, Marco Crosland.
Students in the landscaping program work with BYU Grounds to gain real-life experience and have won a national award competing against industry professionals for a seven-acre, low-maintenance yard built in Heber City. The program requires students to take several business classes that land them a few credits away from a minor.
“A lot of people can landscape, it’s not rocket science, but some of it is,” Allen said. “But to make a living at it you have to know business.”
Growing a program
For most of the students in the landscaping program, it’s not somewhere they originally set out to be, but found and fell in love with.
That was the case for McKayla Sundberg, who just finished her junior year at BYU. Sundberg started her education studying music performance at Utah State University.
The program was down the hall from the university’s landscape architect studio. She’d previously taken a plant and soil science class in high school and took a landscape architecture class at USU as a general education course. She loved it, changed her major and transferred because she wanted to build connections with people in the program.
She hasn’t looked back since.
“I instantly loved it because I realized it wasn’t just going to be trying to take a lot of classes and get an education in one subject, but I would be building connections and relationships,” Sundberg said.
It’s not all about climbing trees, carrying heavy pavers, enacting beautiful designs and getting their hands dirty.
The program, which is housed in the Life Sciences Building, is a combination of the arts, science, business and human interaction.
It’s had to fight against the idea that landscape work is unskilled and low-paid labor students don’t need a degree for. The strong business component and relationship with the grounds crew, Allen said, makes BYU’s program unique. And if students want to work for a high-end company, like Pixar, or work with high-end customers, they are going to need a degree.
Students can make six-figure incomes, and most students will start their careers as account managers.
Allen said not all students are made to sit at a desk for eight hours a day. A career in landscaping gets students outdoors, helps them connect with nature and allows them to create beauty to help their emotional health and happiness.
“Our graduates are among the happiest people on earth because they do what they love and you feel good about, in the case of students working on grounds, how can you not feel good about making a place beautiful?” Allen said.
Sundberg didn’t think when she started the program that she’d be placing in national competitions. Then, this past semester, she was one half of the first all-female team to finish in the top five in hardscape installation at the National Collegiate Landscape Competition. The event required moving 70-pound pavers to complete projects under a tight time period.
Her win represents a trend in BYU’s program, which has gone from being 60 percent male five years ago to being dominated by female students. That change, those in the program speculate, could be because the program’s beginning-level design class is a general education course that attracts women to the arts class.
There were 101 students in the program this academic year, up from 81 from the year before. Allen would like to see it grow to 250.
Greg Jolley, a professor in the landscape management program, graduated from the program in the ’90s when it was focused on urban horticulture. Students now learn about the design and construction side of landscaping, along with maintenance.
“Even though our focus is on maintenance, we still produce excellent landscape designers that know their stuff,” Jolley said.
He said the program’s evolution has created more opportunities for students to make a good living.
He sees the program continuing to adapt to industry demands for the future.
“I think the evolution of our program is going to be not only managers of the landscape, but also managing water and how it is used in the landscape,” Jolley said.
All about passion
Allen wanted to create opportunities for students in the wake of the 2008 recession, which led to the creation of a networking event held every fall where companies fly out for a few days to eat dinner with students, golf and attend a football game. The program charges the companies for the event, and it’s invite-only.
“The companies, they beg me to get on the list,” Allen said.
It leads to students getting job offers in October.
In January, the program brings in professionals to teach for a few days and connect with the students.
For Sundberg, who looks to attend graduate school and eventually design memorial parks and high-end residential projects, it’s the program’s collaborative atmosphere and passionate professors that has made BYU’s program a national leader.
“I think one thing that brings us to the top is our faculty work tirelessly to not just be teachers, but to be mentors,” Sundberg said. “They offer their time and their personal energy.”
That passion is drawing BYU students into the program, but it still has to fight high school counselors who don’t understand the multiple careers a landscaping degree can lead to. Graduates with a landscaping degree have multiple opportunities that include designing trail systems, urban planning or managing urban forestry divisions in a city.
“If you know someone who loves the outdoors, wants a great career that is satisfying, well compensated and does not lead to a trajectory that ends up in morbid obesity, they should consider landscape management,” Allen said.
”Our graduates are among the happiest people on earth because they do what they love and you feel good about, in the case of students working on grounds, how can you not feel good about making a place beautiful?” – Phil Allen, professor in BYU’s landscape management program
