One of the many great things about the Archway Partnership is our ability to provide a platform for talented students to showcase their scholarship and capabilities, all in the service of the communities we serve.

Periodically, we like to check to on some of our former students and see how they are doing post-Archway and what the program meant to them both during their time at UGA and for their careers going forward.

We caught up with recent UGA College of Environmental Design graduate Benjamin Proulx as he leaves behind a student career in Athens and heads to professional pastures elsewhere. Ben worked on projects in a number of Archway communities, from the Linton Park project in Washington County to a beautification project in Colquitt County’s City of Ellenton.

Can you talk a little about your time at UGA? How did you decide on UGA? What attracted to the CED program at UGA?

I had been working as a landscape designer on residential gardens in Dallas, Tx when my wife and I made the decision to move to Georgia for grad school. One thing that really interested me in UGA were the various opportunities to study in and visit Latin America. I had lived in Brazil for several years and was passionate about exploring and learning about Central and South America culture and landscapes. At the time, UGA’s College of Environment and Design was still conducting classes at its Monteverde, Costa Rica campus and I had been offered a Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship to study Portuguese and Latin American geography. The opportunities did not disappoint, and during my time studying here I was able to travel to 6 Latin American countries for academic projects and personal travel.

How did you end up working at Archway?

After my first year at UGA, I learned about the graduate assistant position with Archway Partnership after having been recommended by my professor. I instantly was attracted by the idea of working on projects throughout rural Georgia and knew it would be a great opportunity to learn about and explore the state. I had not previously worked on any public or community projects before and I was excited to try something new after all my work on residential projects.

Can you talk a little about a couple of your favorite projects for Archway? What was it you specifically enjoyed? Talking with the community, design challenges?

I enjoy most projects I get the opportunity to work on but at times I find a project extremely satisfying when it pushes my limits of experience or requires a a higher level creativity or problem solving. One of the last projects I worked involved developing a conceptual master plan for the Linton Park Recreational Area in Sandersville, Ga. The stakeholders for this project had requested a design that incorporated a playground, dog park and walking trail into the existing park location. Designing the playground became exciting when I began to incorporate components of the town’s history, industry and geography. The adjacent railroad tracks inspired the railroad theme for the playground and helped unify all the custom designed play structures. I had never been extraordinarily interested in designing playgrounds before and so this project was a pleasant surprise!

How do you feel Archway helped to prepare you for your career?

A lot of academic work can be structured around theoretical or hypothetical scenarios but Archway provided real projects where I had the opportunity to put into practice what I had been learning in the studio and classroom. The projects were at times both collaboratively and independently driven and afforded me the time to develop areas and skills I was most interested in. This included learning new rendering software, developing my personal creative process, and learning how to design a project that reflected the local history and culture. I’ve felt my confidence grow over the past two years working with Archway and a substantial portion of my portfolio reflects the work I have done throughout the state. I definitely feel that Archway has given me an upper leg coming out of my graduate program which is especially important in economically uncertain times like now!