Congratulations to NJ ASLA on the 10-year Anniversary of the NJ ASLA Education Foundation!
The NJ ASLA Educational Foundation was founded in 2014 to promote landscape architecture in NJ, provide scholarships, grants, and to fundraise for the NJ Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects Endowed Activity Fund (Activity Fund). This is a Rutgers University Foundation Endowment that supports current and future students studying landscape architecture at Rutgers University School of Environmental and Biological Sciences (Rutgers SEBS). The NJ ASLA Education Foundation (NJ ASLA EF) is a 501-c3 nonprofit corporation promoting landscape architecture in New Jersey. The NJ ASLA EF provides donors the opportunity to make a tax-deductible contribution.

The fund was founded in 2013 with an initial installment of $50,000 from the NJ ASLA Executive Committee. The annual interest from the Activity Fund goes to directly support student education activities in the landscape architectural Undergraduate and Graduate programs at Rutgers SEBS. This Activity Fund reached $100,000 in 2024. The interest will provide annually more than $4,000 to the landscape architectural program.

The gains made to reach $100,000 was an effort initiated by the NJ ASLA Executive Committee members in 2012 and 2013 and the Rutgers University Foundation. In 2014, the NJ ASLA EF was created to support the Activity Fund. The EF created a host of activities to support the fund. In 2014, the EF sponsored the NJ ASLA's 50th Anniversary barbeque and fundraiser. In 2015, the EF held a booth at the NJASLA Annual Meeting and at every Annual Meeting thereafter, holding raffles and collecting donations. Prior to Covid, the EF provided annual seminars which provided CEUs to registered Landscape Architects and during Covid provided webinars in an effort to grow donations.

Throughout those ten years the EF received annual donations of approximately $4,000. The EF provided direct donations to the Activity Fund and as well as direct grants to Rutgers students amounting to $2000 annually. In 2020, the NJ ASLA Executive Committee created the "$25,000 Challenge" and announced it would match each year's donation to the EF up to $25,000 in an effort to grow the Activity Fund and meet the goal of $100,000.

 

During the 2024 NJ ASLA Annual Meeting event in January, the EF sponsored a $500 Student Sweepstakes to four students who entered the sweepstakes and wrote in 50 words or less "Why I want to be involved in the profession of Landscape Architecture." Nineteen students submitted sweepstake applications. Four students won the NJ ASLA EF Student Sweepstakes of $500 each. The winning students were Sophia Liang, Danielle Daboll, Emily Chong, and Mortimer Wortman.

To borrow the phrase from Hillary R. Clinton, "It takes a Village." The Activity Fund would not have been possible without the vision of the NJ ASLA EC, the persistence of the core membership of the EF, the support of the NJ ASLA EC, Public Strategies Impact (PSI), and the donations provided by ASLA members and other related professionals and vendors.

Again, congratulations on reaching the goal of $100,000 for the Activity Fund, the 10-year Anniversary of the EF, and the 60-year Anniversary of the NJ ASLA Chapter.

List of contributing NJ ASLA members that contributed to the creation and growth of the Activity Fund:
Richard Bartolone, ASLA
Ilonka Angalet, ASLA Emeritus, NJ ASLA EF
Nick Tufaro, ASLA
Karen Harbeson, ASLA, NJ ASLA EF
Jack Carman, ASLA, NJ ASLA EF
David Earl, ASLA, NJ ASLA EF
Jerry Lewis, ASLA, NJ ASLA EF
Laura Lawson, ASLA, Rutgers SEBS Advisor
Wolfrom Hoefer, ASLA, Rutgers SEB Advisor
Richard Alomar, ASLA, Rutgers SEBS Advisor
Wayne Dubin, ASLA Affiliate, Bartlett Tree Experts