Celia Winters, a student in Temple's Master of Landscape Architecture (MLArch) program offered by the Tyler School of Art and Architecture, will be the first to tell you she has her very own, personal Fairy Godmother. It just happens to be her aunt, Meridee Winters — a guiding light and force of nature in her own right, according to Winters.

"She is the one that sent me to a certification program for ecopsychology, which I always had an interest in —ecopsychology studies the effects that ecosystems and the natural world have on humans mentally as well as physically. My undergraduate degree was in psychology and this and biophilia — the innate human predisposition to love or feel connected to nature — were areas of study that I was always drawn to," she said. "(Meridee Winters) also took me on trips around the country to get into communion with other ecosystems — I hiked the redwood forests barefoot for eight hours because she truly wanted me to be connected and grounded with the Earth."

Her Fairy Godmother also helped her discover Temple's MLArch program and set her on the career path she is following today. 

"Plants really being my first hobby as a teenager, and psychology and biophilia and ecopsychology — I wanted to figure out where did all of these interests meet," she said. "In my research it seemed like landscape architecture, particularly within the capacity that Temple teaches it, could bridge all my areas of interest into one field. So far, it's going really well."

While sitting with her aunt one day looking at potential Landscape Architecture programs, "we simultaneously came across Temple's program."

"We both had this light bulb moment. With the MLArch program's restoration focus, it was very clear to me," she said. "I knew I wanted to go there."

For the full story on how she chose to pursue the Master of Landscape Architecture degree, however, a little rewinding is necessary.

While completing her undergraduate work, Winters headed out west, studying sustainable architecture in Montana.

"It was always a goal of mine to make it out west simply because the ecosystems are so interesting. They are on such a grand scale," she said. "Then I came back east and during my gap years between programs, I worked on a farm in Delaware."

Point Lookout Farm, Winters said, was "a project of the heart of the late Phyllis Wyeth — it was a part of their larger foundation."

"We had inner city youth come out and they'd take part in educational gardening, educational farming, sort of in a summer camp-like setting. It was free of charge for the children to come to the programs," she said. "It was really just one of the best experiences of my life, managing that and being the educator for it as well."

In addition to the educational programs, Winters was involved in all manner of farm life with a team of three to five "depending on the time of year."

"We'd wake up early each morning and head to the barn. We had seven goats who had a morning ritual, and, at our peak, we had 22 chickens. They're pasture raised, which means they got to free range, but it was truly next level," she said. "Then we would get ready for programming for the day, which on any given day could be very different. For example, we'd have kids go in the garden and we'd teach them about germination of seeds that led to them harvesting zucchinis."

That, in turn, led to sharing the culinary delight that is zucchini muffins.

"The zucchini muffins got a unanimous 'Ew!' from a bunch of middle schoolers, but when they ate it with homemade butter, suddenly they were the biggest fans of zucchini muffins," she laughed. "It was really all about spending time with kids in nature. Then you'd wrap up the day cleaning up and making sure all the animals were safe and the chickens were back home — it was anything and everything that had to do with a farm, and that was what was great about it."

The experience, Winters said, taught her to "really tune into the land, because it'll tell you what you need to know."

"It'll tell you if it's going to storm later or if there's cloudy conditions and you have to get the chickens in because that's when the foxes come out to play. There's this whole symbiotic relationship that helps you do your job," she said. "In turn, you're sort of on 100 percent of the time. You're always listening for these subtle cues that Mother Nature is giving you — it was one of the best times of my life."

Winters said she always felt "in tune" with her biophilic side "but being on the farm brought it to a whole new level."

"You have to tune into the farm animals and what they're alerting you to, or the changes of the season, what do you need to be looking out for in the gardens and what happens when the frost comes," she said. "I never understood that you could be in a relationship with the land or the climate or the environment to that extent until I was put in that position; it was my responsibility. I had the great honor of being tuned into land as a byproduct — it's a truly unique sensation. When we get to talk to land managers in class now, I understand where they're coming from in a way that I don't think, unless you've been in that position, you can fully appreciate."

While in an ideal world, Winters said, she would have loved to remain a farmer as a career, she decided to make a return to the classroom with the hope "that I could find a career that merged all my interests and experiences from farming and gardening and my love of the land."

Winters, who is set to graduate from the MLArch program in May 2025, said the restoration focus of Temple's program was the primary draw for her.

"There is a heavy focus on having professionals in the restoration field as well as landscape architects that are able to guide us and teach us how to be stewards of the land and the earth while we enter this profession," she said. "The amount of field trips that we take to observe different ecosystems, different ecotypes have also been very valuable — for all of our studio projects, we go in-person to sites and, if possible, meet with what we might classify as shareholders."

Real-world, hands-on experiences, Winters said, "brings the academic experience out of the theoretical space and it puts you into the perspective of how you're going to be experiencing things once you graduate and you have that degree in hand."

Another benefit of Temple's Master of Landscape Architecture program, Winters said, is "learning at the Ambler Campus and the Ambler Arboretum, which is a Level III accredited arboretum."

"It's a very special place with tremendous resources for us as students," she said. "Getting to walk by plant ID tags every day or go into the Greenhouse where (Greenhouse Manager) Ben (Snyder) is in there making sure the plants live their best lives is a very enriching experience and it gives you a lot of pride that you're learning about restoration in a space like this."

Having been out of school for some time and then returning, "I understand that a large part of learning happens on the job, and through a mentorship relationship with a superior or supervisor," Winters said.  

"My short-term goal is to learn within the professional field as much as I can hands-on. I want to find a place that can really foster learning and creativity within the field of landscape architecture — if it focused on restoration, I'd be over the moon," she said. "Long term, I want to be a landscape architect in a capacity that allows me to give biophilia to others — sort of ignite it within others — and have the environment and ecosystems that lie within it be at the forefront of the work that I do."

For other adult students thinking of a return to the classroom, Winters' advice is simple.

"Go for it! If you're a non-traditional student like me, you'd be amazed by how helpful and encouraging professors are as well as anybody within the administration of the University. You have the rest of your life to live, so why not pivot?" she said. "No matter what stage you're in, time is going to pass anyway. You might as well pass it doing something that you are passionate about and that makes you happy."

The Master of Landscape Architecture at the Tyler School of Art and Architecture is a Landscape Architectural Accreditation Board (LAAB)-accredited degree program that emphasizes ecological landscape restoration — one of a few to offer this concentration among LAAB-accredited programs. The MLArch program is committed to excellence in ecologically-based design education, accomplishes the objectives for entry into the profession of landscape architecture and is aligned with the goals of the Society for Ecological Restoration. 

The MLArch curriculum integrates landscape restoration with landscape architecture in order to educate students in the preservation and transformation of natural and built environments into aesthetically beautiful and resilient places. Students apply scientific knowledge of landscape restoration, native plant communities and local ecosystems to transform vacant lots, brownfields and suburban sprawl into creatively-designed parks, campuses, gardens and neighborhoods. Learn more about the Master of Landscape Architecture.