SUNY ESF
Student Profile Hannah Smith

Making a Difference for Generations to Come

By Judy Gelman Myers

When Hannah Smith visited an ESF field station in 2013 as part of her Adirondack Semester with St. Lawrence University, she immediately knew she would come to ESF; she just didn’t know when and what for.

After receiving her BA from St. Lawrence, Smith spent ten years working various jobs, from starting her own business to food service, agriculture, and customer service. While employed in a print and design company in her hometown of Rochester, she met a number of landscape architects, who opened her eyes to the field. She applied to ESF’s master’s program in landscape architecture in spring 2024 and quit her job as soon as she received her acceptance letter.

“After a decade of working in numerous unfulfilling industries,  ESF and the MLA program redirected my life in the most positive and uplifting way,” said Smith. What I’m learning here can help me make a difference for generations to come.”

Smith describes the MLA program as a Petri dish where culture, community, and the environment interact, incorporating different levels and aspects of society, from the built environment to the behavioral responses of people who use public spaces, to questions about who has access and who doesn’t. “The program is a place where all these different avenues coexist, and it serves as a springboard for a larger conversation,” she said.

As a budding architect sensitive to the built environment, Smith is grateful every time she steps inside the brand-new
Marshall Hall.

“It’s thrilling to start a degree in a state-of-the-art building that’s been renovated and updated inside and out,” she said, adding that it made her feel welcomed and absorbed into ESF culture.

But nothing made her feel more welcomed than the scholarship that made her attendance at ESF possible. To potential donors, she says, “There are people out there who want to be part of changing the world and doing something positive. Giving financial access to someone who wants to make a difference is the greatest gift of all. If you’re considering donating, know how grateful the recipient is and forever will be.”

Smith has two more years to go before completing her program, but at the moment she aims to pursue a career in the public realm, working to improve daily quality of life for everyday people. She’s currently considering staying in Syracuse, actively reinventing, reviving, and reenergizing different spaces with a view toward health justice, access, and public well-being.

She gets emotional when she tries to express her gratitude to the folks who opened the door to these dreams. “Having financial support let me change my career path. I’m deeply grateful for your contribution to bettering this world through education and providing meaningful opportunities for individuals with a lot of determination, passion, heart, and drive who don’t always have a lot of money, like me. I am going to make a difference in this world, and you’re a part of that. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.”