Avery Haynes, BLA 2023, has been named a Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA) Fountain Scholar Finalist.

“I have a focus in equity, art, and ecology,” Haynes said. “I would like to explore community design through the lens of public art as an advocacy tool. I am currently working on a project that will use skateboarding to map edge conditions in the built environment. I am going to focus on Black, queer collectives to connect a sense of identity (and the marginalization of it) to the way that we experience designed spaces.”

Avery Haynes is currently pursuing their Bachelors of Landscape Architecture at LSU. They were born and raised just outside of Baton Rouge, LA, and though they do not plan to stay in Baton Rouge, they hope that they can apply the things they are learning to impact their hometown in a positive way. They take special interest inequitable, artful, and plant specific design. They serve as a founder and student co-chair of Landscape Architects for Black Lives, an ad hoc committee within their program for diversity, equity, and inclusion working to deconstruct systemic barriers for Black students within the school.

The CELA Fountain Scholar Program is an endowed annual award in recognition and support of Black, Indigenous, and persons (students) of color in landscape architecture with exceptional design skills and who use their skills and ideas to influence, communicate, lead and advance design solutions for contemporary issues in a manner aligned with the original goals of Dr. Charles Fountain.

Named for Dr. Charles Fountain, the CELA Fountain Scholar Program provides a $2,000 scholarship for one graduate or undergraduate landscape architecture student each year. Now in its 2nd year, the program recognizes one outstanding student nominated from each landscape architecture program from CELA member institutions. 

Students are both honored for past achievements and recognized for their future potential to influence the landscape architecture profession. The CELA Fountain Scholar Program was established to help Black and Indigenous students of color to advance their landscape architecture education.