On March 17th, 2023, UMass LARP Associate Professor Frank Sleegers received the Senior Level Faculty Award for Excellence in Service Learning at the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA) Conference 2023!

From March 15th through March 18th 2023, the CELA Annual Conference took place in San Antonio, Texas. 

Frank Sleegers recieved this award based on the work he has produced in collaboration with students, alumni, and community members since 2008 in the neighborhoods of Springfield, MA. This award was handed over by CELA Second Vice President and Board Member Simon Bussiere, ASLA (BSLA '05). The following were quotes from the review board: 

“Since joining the faculty in 2006, he has been committed to teaching urban design studios that partner with communities in the diverse, low-income cities of Massachusetts. He has developed long-term collaborations with the City of Springfield which is the third largest city in the Commonwealth. With a population of over 150,000, Springfield has been designated by the state as a Gateway City for new immigrants and is a majority-minority city with many environmental justice neighborhoods.”

“The scope and breadth of Frank’s service-learning work is truly impressive with 28 urban design studios in the period from 2008-2022 that have engaged 450 graduate and undergraduate landscape architecture students and over 600 community members in co-design projects. Moreover, these projects have resulted in peer-recognition winning 14 regional and national design awards. Frank also includes a rigorous writing component in which the studio creates a project publication for the community clients that is also available digitally in the University of Massachusetts Scholarworks repository with over 10,000 downloads.”

A number of our faculty and affiliates were present at the CELA conference to give lectures and to participate in panels. 

Congratulations Frank on your national award!