Second year graduate student at Kansas State University, Pamela Blackmore, is the very first landscape architecture scholar in history to receive the 2018 Garden Club of America Board of Associates Centennial Pollinator Fellowship.

In the past, this fellowship has only been awarded to students in a science related discipline, like biology, entomology or zoology.

She will get a $4,000 grant to further her research project titled, "Butterflies, Tallgrass Prairie, and Green Roofs," in which she will study two green roofs located on the campus in order to evaluate the effectiveness of them in providing pollinator habitation in an urban context. Both of the green roofs in question are located on top of the Memorial Stadium, and Blackmore will compare pollinator activity of the roofs to the nearby native prairie at
Warner Park in Manhattan, Ks.

"Receiving this fellowship means a lot to me because it shows the jury valued the research I'm conducting, even though I'm a landscape architecture student," Blackmore said in a Kansas State news article. "I have an incredible team helping me, not only from my department, but also a wildlife biologist, botanist and many others from the K-State Division of Biology. I credit my phenomenal support team for receiving this award."

Reportedly, Blackmore intends to use the grant to hire research assistants for her study.