The students weren’t the only ones who took home honors during this year’s National Collegiate Landscape Competition (NCLC).
The National Association of Landscape Professionals (NALP) also bestowed its annual Young Entrepreneur of the Year and Outstanding Educator of the Year awards. The awards were presented March 16 and March 18, respectively.
Mark Maslow, co-owner and president of Southern Landscape Group in Evington, Va., received the Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award. The award recognizes entrepreneurs age 40 or under who have “demonstrated spirit and initiative” and serve “as an example to students pursuing a landscape industry career,” the association said.
Maslow started his first landscape business while in high school. He received a bachelor’s in horticulture and landscape design with a minor in agricultural economics from Virginia Tech.
Greg Jolley, associate professor of the Plant and Wildlife Sciences program in the College of Life Sciences at Brigham Young University—Provo, took home the Outstanding Educator of the Year Award.
Jolley joined the BYU faculty in 2003 after several years working as a landscape architect. He is known for putting his real-world skills towards a hands-on approach in the classroom, NALP said. For instance, he worked with dozens of students on a high-end residential design/build project that was the only student project to ever win a national NALP Award of Excellence.
Upon receiving the award, the professor said his “greatest joy in his career has been the opportunity to work with his students every day.”
“On behalf of the entire Foundation Board of directors, we congratulate Greg Jolley as this year’s Outstanding Educator of the Year Award,” said Mark Meister, NALP Foundation president. “He is a great mentor to his students, shaping many careers and contributing to the industry as a whole.”
Watch a video on Mark Maslow, the 2017 NALP Young Entrepreneur of the Year.
Photo Credit: NALP
