Landscape Architecture senior Abigail Long isn't someone who's not willing to get her hands dirty. She's not one to just wait around for something to come to her either.

"I want the hands-on experience. For me personally, I think that's how I learn the best — diving in there and figuring out how to do it," said Long, 30, a transfer student who returned to the classroom in 2015 after working several years in the restaurant industry. "You can be told how to do something, but it's not really until you're in a situation where you need to grapple with it that you fully understand the concepts. That's been one of the biggest benefits of coming to Temple, getting the chance at the Ambler Campus to try out so many different things in real-world situations."

Long discovered Temple Ambler "by coming here one day just to visit the gardens."

"I knew that if I was going to go back to school, I wanted to be here. It's a beautiful space. I knew that I wanted do something with my career in terms of helping the environment in some way but I wasn't sure quite what that looked like or what careers even existed in those fields," said Long who, through hard work and diligence, has an incredible 3.98 GPA. "I grew up working in a restaurant in my hometown of Gettysburg. I actually started there as a bus girl and worked my way up to management. I realized that it wasn't something that I wanted to do for the rest of my life, even though it was good for me then — it taught me a lot of people, managerial and leadership skills."

Rather than diving right in, Long said she took a few classes before joining the Landscape Architecture program, offered at Temple by the Tyler School of Art and Architecture.

"I took a Sustainable Design course with (Assistant Professor of Instruction of Landscape Architecture) Kate Benisek and she introduced me to Landscape Architecture," she said. "It was seeing projects that the current students were working on that made realized what a worthwhile and interesting career path it could be."

Those first steps back into the classroom, however, were not without a hefty dose of trepidation, said Long, who had previously majored in education at another institution.

"From the beginning, making the decision to go back to school, that was a huge transformation. I was definitely nervous; it had been a few years since I was in a classroom setting," she said. "One thing I was particularly nervous about was giving presentations but being in the Landscape Architecture program and being in the studio environment really helped with my transition back into the classroom. You have a lot of access to the professors and you're also given these exercises every week called pin-ups — I almost think of it like exposure therapy. Every week, you get up in front of the class and present your work so eventually it becomes second nature."

Talking with her academic advisor also helped with the transition back to school, Long said.

"I knew I wanted to come back to school and I wanted to go to Temple Ambler. I had a general sense of what I wanted to do (and what I didn't want to do) but I didn't quite know how to get there," she said. "From the very beginning my advisor helped me to take a few classes to get my feet wet a little bit and eventually helped me choose my major."

In 2020, Long was part of the team of students and faculty who presented Temple's Gold Medal award-winning Philadelphia Flower Show exhibit Course of Action: A Radical Tack for Suburban Tracts.

"The design-build component of the Junior Studio really was a great experience. I will admit it was hard at times — there are so many things required that you're not really sure that you can do, so many different parts and roles to undertake — but it's all worth it," she said.  "We designed the exhibit, we sourced the exhibit, we built the exhibit. We dismantled and built it again at the Convention Center and staffed the exhibit during Flower Show week."

As a landscape architecture major, Long has taken a keen interest in the plant-side of her career choice, working hands-on in the Ambler Arboretum of Temple University.

"My first year I worked with two senior students and they helped train me to take care of all of the different gardens in the Arboretum — the Formal Garden, the Native Garden, the Winter Garden — anything from weeding to leaf removal to planting plants," she said. "I also helped out with the weekly volunteers. During the winter one year, I got to do a survey of the trees on campus, updating a database of trees looking at their height and their growth to see any changes from one year to the next."

Working in the gardens as a landscape architecture student has huge benefits, Long said.

"I'd recommend it to any student, especially any student that has never been in the industry before and isn't quite sure how to break into it. You'll learn a lot about garden management and you'll learn a lot about plants, which is one of the best things about coming to Temple Ambler," she said. "You have access to all of the plants on campus. You're working with professional horticulturists that have come from all over; well-respected professionals who you can learn a lot from."

While at Temple, she has also had opportunity to explore the profession at other arboreta and green industry businesses. She has worked at the Morris Arboretum and interned at Stoney Bank Nurseries (founded by Temple Ambler alumni) with their landscape architecture office.

"During the pandemic, I started connecting with people in my community doing some garden designs and garden work for people locally — socially distanced and following all recommended guidelines while still getting some hands-on experience. "Just like any other facet of life, it's been challenging. Temple — the professors, the faculty, the staff — have done a tremendous job to provide the best academic experience to us as they can and the Information Technology Department has provided us with access to all of the programs, files and software we need. We have studio courses where we meet a little over 10 hours each week and we're doing it entirely virtually this semester. One of the benefits is you have ways to connect like Zoom — for desk critiques, it's one-on-one uninterrupted time where they can see your work."

Graduating in May 2021, Long said she is taking this year "to get exposed to as many different landscape architecture firms as I possibly can just to see the differences among them and to see which one speaks to me so I can decide which direction I want to go." Eventually, she said, she may explore graduate school and teaching.

"I love the plant side of landscape architecture and I also love the people side of it. That's the great thing about landscape architecture — there are so many different aspects to it," she said. "I love native plants in particular and helping people select plants that they may not know about initially that could benefit not only themselves but other aspects of their backyard and home landscapes."

As a student, Long has also become an integral part of the campus community. She has been a member of the Ambler Campus chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects for four years and co-president of the organization in 2019 and 2020.

"Being involved in ASLA, it gives you a great opportunity to see what professionals are doing in landscape architecture and horticulture. You're going to conferences, you're listening to lectures, your exposure to professionals is significant, which is a really great aspect of it," she said. "In 2019, the PA-DEL ASLA regional chapter sent me to the national ASLA conference in San Diego, which was an incredible experience. My involvement has also helped me in learning leadership skills and honing that aspect of my professional development."

Long's Temple experience, she said, "has been one of growth, one of challenge and one of a lot of perseverance."

"From the person I was when I first started to the person I am now, there has been drastic change and transformation, which I think is really good. Going back to school, doing a lot of the work that I've done, it's given me the confidence for whatever comes next," she said. "At Temple Ambler you get a small school feel — the beautiful gardens in the Arboretum, the small class sizes — while you also get the Temple name. You are part of something while making connections to a terrific community."

For other's who might be intimidated by the process of returning to school full-time, Long suggests taking a few classes "to see what's right for you."

"Make an informed decision about what you want from your degree. Find out as much as you can about the potential career that you want to get into," she said. "Don't be intimidated about getting back into a classroom. You'll find your way and there are people to help you along the way. It will happen; before you know it, you're finishing your degree!"