IFLA Emerging Professionals Advocacy group - a Nigerian perspective
Article by Tobiloba Akibo, member of SLAN and IFLA EPA Working Group
“By sharing what we know, we help each-other grow”
“The Emerging Professionals’ Advocate (EPA) working group is an international working group of young professionals and students of Landscape Architecture or relevant disciplines aiming to create a community and integrate the voice of young professionals within IFLA”
EPA is geared towards bringing together like-minded young professionals and students to collaborate, share knowledge and peer mentorship and as a result, bridge the gap between the classroom and real-world experience.
The EPA’s focus on creating a network of Landscape Architects across all regions was what informed the breakout session during the IFLA World Congress 2019, moderated by the EPA’s chair and member of the Critical Artistic Thinking in Design (CATiD) research hub in Birmingham City University, Dr Anastasia Nikologianni.
The session titled “Exploring the Future” was a collaboration between the EPA, European Landscape Architecture Student Association (ELASA) and Terra Form, and got students and young professionals of Landscape Architecture to brainstorm and discuss short and long term solutions to our current environmental issues, its impact in our daily lives and how Landscape Architecture can be responsible for creating these solutions
The session tackled several questions like ‘How can we make Landscape Architecture better known to the public?’ and ‘Future trends in Landscape Architecture’
Dr. Anastasia Nikologianni delivered a rousing speech on landscape architecture - “I discussed how younger generations see the future of the profession and how it can and should be one of the key
professions for addressing the climate crisis…… in addition to my talk, I also chaired a session for emerging professionals and students about the similarities between different countries and mentalities in relation to our work.”
The ongoing work at the EPA is crucial to the future of Landscape Architecture as we need to keep sharing ideas, collaborating on important work across the globe and getting more people talking about EPA and doing the work.
To know more about IFLA EPA working group, see here you can also connect with them on their several social media platforms:
Email : epa@iflaworld.org
Twitter Account: @EPA_IFLA
Facebook Account: @EmergingProfessionalAdvocateIFLA
LinkedIn Account: www.linkedin.com/in/EPA-IFLA