ABOUT
Thesis Project
This is an honors thesis project to fulfill the requirement for the Penn State Schreyer Honors College
In my classes at Penn State, we learned about large-scale ecological restoration and conservation efforts. These projects required millions of dollars and great tracts of land. Transparency and education becomes difficult at such a large scale, reducing community outreach efforts. Misunderstanding or general apathy by the public about the environment and all it has to offer is a roadblock in moving forward large-scale ecologically-focused designs. So I wondered, how can I get people to care more about the world? Care enough to actually do something about it. This thesis is the solution I devised. It is a grass-roots effort to show lawn-mowing homeowners that there is more out there than a sea of turf.
The goal of this thesis project is to encourage the transformation of the suburban lawn to a species-rich yard by making the process of choosing plants and designing a garden more digestible for homeowners. My focus is in Pennsylvania. I also hope to educate people about the issue of lawns and the benefit of adding native plants.
About Me
My name is Zoe Roane-Hopkins. I am majoring in landscape architecture with a minor in geography at The Pennsylvania State University. A passion for the natural world has followed me through life, thanks to my parents and has manifested itself in landscape architecture. Landscape architecture is awesome because it touches on the land, people, and society. Good design brings people together. It makes them aware of their place in the world. I spend my free time playing ukulele, painting, and taking the occasional photograph.
