Megan Singleton

Hometown: Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina        
Education Background: Fashion & Textile Brand Management & Marketing from NC State

How did you get interested in your field?
I had the opportunity to listen to a design review for some first-year landscape students at my job, and I thought to myself, “This seems like so much fun!” It was so hard not to add all the ideas I had popping into my head as I watched their final presentations, so I figured that was a good sign this might be a great new career path. When I looked into it, I found it had everything I was looking for in a fulfilling career: creative, social, new things every day, and doing something planet-focused.

What was your background prior to coming to Penn?
My degree is in fashion marketing, but I worked for four years at a national park in DC doing nonprofit work. Two of those years I spent as an AmeriCorps VISTA and two as a full-time employee doing marketing, communications, graphic design, and fundraising. It was a lot of fun and got me interested in how people use public spaces and how public space can serve as an essential ecological facet of infrastructure.

Why did you choose Penn?
I was interested in the faculty primarily. We have some of the leading thinkers in the design profession teaching us here, and the pedagogy reflects that. I also had a chance to get to know some folks in my cohort on accepted students’ day and found a lot of people I connected with. Now, they’re some of my best friends who I work with every day.

What has been your favorite class so far?
I am still pulling from the knowledge I learned in Workshop 1. Not only was it so fun to go hiking every week to new landscapes, but I also got to dive into plant knowledge and field drawing (two things I love!). This is a great way to understand the foundations ecologies play in all kinds of landscapes.

What are you learning right now that will help you in the future?
Media 3 teaches us how to create and analyze places in GIS while also teaching how the different ways we represent things can communicate different things. Right now, these tools are helping me with researching and doing site analysis.

What do you like best about Philadelphia?
Philly has fantastic music and food scenes. I love seeing great bands (for cheap!) and trying all the different types of food you can find in the city. There’s always something new and crazy to try!

What kinds of activities and/or organizations are you involved in?
I am part of the Weitzman Gardeners here at the design school, serving as communications design coordinator. It’s a lot of fun and is a great break from studio. We get together to go on garden tours and urban sketching walks and organize yearly seed and plant-cutting exchanges.

What are your career ambitions?
While I am interested in working at a firm after I graduate, I also want to dive into research and representation with the hopes of teaching down the line. The great thing about landscape architecture, though, is that it leads in so many directions, so I’m keeping my options open!