I am a current Urban Planning & Policy graduate student at the University of Illinois at Chicago. I would like to venture back East and continue graduate studies providing a foundation in planning attributed to more ecological and progressive environmental and landscape perspectives. We, and our architectural framework, exist at a time when communities are codifying what will be preserved more prevalently than before. We implicitly participate and mold historical accounts of land usage, particularly with green space. Our everyday experiences, exploring the vitality and necessity of green spaces becomes variable; this is where my further exploration in urban planning lies.

I have found Chicago a hard transition. Its city recycling program is faltering with citywide initiative (finally) rolling out in 2011, knowingly that residential recycling practice has been in place for almost 20 years elsewhere. Chicago certainly has encompassed economic development and job retention programs have been of success comparatively to nearby industrial cities such as Detroit. Intention and focus within my education in environmental practices leans more toward conservation and ecology and less toward community growth and development.

And there are many positive and educational experiences that I have gained from the Chicagoland area. I am participating in the Midewin Tall Grass Prairie Charrette with fellow graduate students, local government agency representatives, including Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP), and Forest Service staff. The prairie is a remarkable cultural heritage site for the Midwest. With the Burnham Legacy centennial upcoming, the prairie is a particular focus for the city of Chicago.

Starting in 2005, my earlier painting practice led me to the early planning books by Jane Jacobs and landscape writings by Anne Whitson Spirn. Visions of city life infused with a new, rich landscape led me through the next few years further into researching urban planning and ecology. I "started over" in the Science Library at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden reading publications on environmental politics and conservation theories written in the early half of the twentieth century. I created abstracts for implementation into library databases for scientific research. This exposure to early histories of the American forest and its landscapes has furthered my interest in urban studies.

Focusing now on contemporary practices in urban life and new landscape environments, I aim to continue to utilize what I have learned from New York City and Chicago to focus further on the design attributes of land preservation and positive effects from urban planning. Coalescing and nurturing both extremes and definably looking for Utopian green urban environments, I would like to encounter history, ecology, design, and land use.