Garden Scholar awards
A Garden Scholar Award package includes waived event registration and a stipend to cover hotel/travel/incidental costs for attending a regional symposium ($750) or the Annual Conference ($1,500). Garden Scholar Awards are 100% funded through gifts from individual members, corporate and institutional donors.
If you are interested in supporting a scholarship or underwrite a waiver for a member in financial need, you can do so by donating to the Garden Scholars Fund or contacting our Development team.
2025 Application Cycle
Applications for the 2025 Annual Conference will open in early 2025.
Priority Garden Scholar Member Segments:
- Staff from member gardens or Individual Level Member holders at one of these specific stages on their roadmap to professional development:
- Intern/Recent Intern
- Entry-level/Career launch
- Mid-level management
- Aspiring or emerging leaders
- 1st time attendee to an Association symposium or Annual Conference
- Students currently enrolled in a university program who have/had an existing internship or paid work affiliation with a member garden, or have Entry Level Membership status with the Association with or without a member garden affiliation.
Applications are evaluated based on:
- Strength of personal narrative
- Strength of support letter for Garden Scholar applicant
- Degree of individual and/or institutional financial need
- Issues of equity – diversity/inclusion/economic
Fellowship Opportunities
Garden Club of America Hope Goddard Iselin Fellowship Award
The 2025 Application cycle is open from September 1, 2024 to February 1, 2025.
A fellowship/grant opportunity offered in partnership with the Garden Club of America. The Garden Club of America Hope Goddard Iselin Fellowship in Public Horticulture will award up to a $5,000 grant to a student enrolled in a graduate-level university program to study public horticulture through experiential learning that takes place at a recognized public garden, botanic garden, arboretum, or other closely aligned public horticulture institution in the United States.
The Linda Milbourn Fellowship in Landscape Architecture
The Linda Milbourn Fellowship in Landscape Architecture provided financial assistance for a promising student pursuing a graduate degree in landscape architecture with a distinct connection to public gardens. This Fellowship is no longer presented.
2023 Recipient: Scout Kerensky-Coodley, The City College of New York – The Trust for Governors Island
2022 Recipient: Robert Castelo, University of Idaho – University of Idaho Botanical Garden & Arboretum
2021 Recipient: Jessica Fegley, Penn State University – Winterthur
Support the program
Support Garden Scholars Program directly below, learn more on our Giving Opportunities page
