There are career shifts and then there are seismic quakes.

When she came to Temple and entered the Tyler School of Art and Architecture's Master of Landscape Architecture (MLArch) program, Ginger Hansen most certainly chose the latter.

From art history to law to landscape architecture, the connections might not seem readily apparent until you start exploring a little deeper.

"An art history class was a requirement for whatever I was majoring in at the time, which was not anything close to what I ended up getting my degree in," said Hansen, who graduated with an Art History degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "I took Italian Renaissance Architecture, and I just fell in love with it. When I graduated, however, I didn't really know what I wanted to do with art history."

Exploring her options led Hansen to take an online class offered by the famous Sotheby's auction house. 

"They were offering an online class called International Law in the Art Business. I discovered that the legal aspects of the course were the most interesting parts," she said. "My mom (Stephanie Hansen) was a lawyer and always told me that I could be a really good lawyer, so I pursued it as a more viable career path. I initially thought, 'Maybe I could be an art lawyer.'"

Hansen said she initially focused her law studies on the art field "but it turned out I don't like copyright law as much as I thought I would, which is at the core of art-related law."

"I continued with law in other veins, got my degree, and worked in five different jobs in the legal profession over six years," she said. "I started with corporate mergers and acquisitions. Then I clerked for a federal judge. Following that, I worked for the City of Philadelphia on tort litigation. Then I was an assistant district attorney for Philadelphia."

Last stop, a private law firm in the city working on "what you could say was white collar criminal defense. My specialty was helping people recover from wire fraud."

Working in the legal field, Hansen said, provided her with the financial freedom to be able to "pursue whatever I wanted, even if that was leaving the career entirely." Hansen said she realized that the classroom beckoned.   

"Coming back to the classroom as a non-traditional student, I think you start to see school as 'this is what I want' rather than 'this is what I have to do.' You have more agency, more intentionality to what you are doing and what your goals are. I think you see the professors more as colleagues."

According to Hansen, there is "more of a strict hierarchy between professor and student when you are an undergraduate."

"Especially for me, the change in how we interact in graduate classes gave me the confidence to know I could approach this situation as an adult learning from other adults. That's one of the most beneficial parts of the MLArch program — we're always learning from each other," she said. "That attitude has been really helpful in getting what I want out of the program. Some of the younger students have told me that they appreciate that approach because they realize they can also approach things with more purpose and a little more control."

Hansen said returning to the classroom was a very smooth transition.   

"I've always loved learning. When I completed my undergraduate degree I was really sad — what was I going to do without public lectures to go to," she said. "Going back to school was very appealing to me."

No one could say that transitioning from the field of law to landscape architecture is an obvious career path, but Hansen was certainly not deterred by the road less traveled.

"I made the decision back when I was an assistant district attorney, and I stayed in law to ensure I could make that happen. I took the time at the private firm to brainstorm what I liked to study — art definitely came back to mind," she said. "During the pandemic, I also reconnected with nature — both of my parents are very nature- and environmentally-oriented. Living in the city, I had sort of forgotten that it was a large part of my childhood that I loved. I wanted to combine art and nature and science, which was always another area of interest."

The lightbulb moment came from an unexpected place — a British television series called Your Garden Made Perfect.

"They bring in landscape designers and they create designs for couples based on their needs and their budget. That's when it all came together," she said. "I did my research and once I discovered landscape architecture, I knew there was no need to experiment anymore — landscape architecture had everything I was looking for."

Temple's MLArch program, with its focus on restoration, fit the bill at every level, she said.

"I immediately recognized the larger implications of the profession and the level of skill that's involved," she said. "With those skills, you have the tools to undertake important things that benefit the environment."

Hansen began the MLArch program in fall 2022 and is expecting to graduate in May 2026.

"The focus on ecological restoration is a special and almost unique thing about the program. I didn't really even know to seek that out when I was looking at programs, but I feel so fortunate that I found it — that was something that I wanted, and it was just there right in front of me," she said. "I love the small class size because the way that I learn is through a lot of one-on-one discussion. In larger classes I would not be nearly as involved, but I'm so comfortable here with this class size."

Hansen said her past experience in art history and law has and will continue to inform her approach to the landscape architecture profession.

"With the art history background, just knowing and understanding that there are different styles of doing something comes very naturally to me. With law, the direct connections are a little harder to pin down but I think law made me a more aggressive learner," she said. "I'm going to get everything I can out of a class and I'm going to ask the hard questions. It might be surprising to other students and professors to hear, but it makes a big impact in class on what we learn — being able to ask hard questions and get answers to really complex issues in that way."

While completing the MLArch program, Hansen is also gaining experience in the field outside of the classroom working at the Tyler Arboretum in addition to working for a landscaper in Philadelphia.

"He focuses on native plants and I'm basically his plant person, working on garden designs in Philadelphia. At the Tyler Arboretum, my focus is their pollinator preserve," she said. "It's a little native plant area that's been set aside and they focus on pollinators and education about pollinators — what does it mean to have a good, healthy habitat for pollinators. I've been working with them to keep the plants healthy and change around the garden design, if necessary, in addition to being involved in the public education programs."

Hansen said her favorite projects in the classroom "are actually engineering projects."

"I wasn't a fan of those initially, but as I started to learn more, it changed everything. When I learned about grading, I felt like I had such control over the landscape in a much more practical way than I had before," she said. "The way that Baldev (Lamba) and Rob (Kuper) (Associate Professors of Landscape Architecture in the Tyler School of Art and Architecture) teach it, it's very oriented toward environmental concerns and what is best for the environment. With engineering, we could shape the land in new, beneficial ways — it just gave me a greater sense of control and understanding of the land."

According to Hansen studying at a campus that is also an Arboretum has been a tremendous resource for her as a student.

"The most obvious benefit is in Woody Plant Identification, which is a required class. We can actually just go outside and look at the plants and get real samples, which is very helpful," she said. "Just this past year I became part of the leadership of Temple's ASLA (American Society of Landscape Architects) chapter. We are working on setting up projects with (Ambler Arboretum Director) Kathy Salisbury that we can actually get hands-on with, a way for us to give back to the campus."

Hansen said while she's in the second year of her landscape architecture program she hasn't pinned down a specific area of the field to pursue after graduation just yet.

"I still have a lot to learn and discover. I know that I would like to get my landscape architecture license; I'm looking forward to working with a landscape architect for a couple of years to reach that goal," she said. "I know that whatever I do it will be restoration focused. There are a lot of avenues to explore — I'm looking forward to whatever the future brings."