Alumni
landscape architect devotes career to public service
As a kid growing up outside Buffalo, Amy Schneckenburger (’84 B.L.A.) spent summers working with her landscape architect father, assisting him with site surveys, land studies and related tasks. Although she enjoyed the work, she never planned to follow in her dad’s footsteps, and enrolled at Penn State as a computer science major. But when she returned home for a school break and drove past a site she had helped to survey, she was struck by how the land was transformed.
“I literally had an epiphany when we drove past that site,” she says. “I realized the positive influence landscape architects can have.”
And that began Amy’s own transformation from aspiring computer scientist to landscape architect nationally recognized for her efforts in land and water conservation. She took a job with the National Park Service immediately after graduating from Penn State and since then has held a range of positions within the agency, including overseeing a number of high-profile projects at Yosemite National Park.
Schneckenburger became interested in working for the National Park Service after attending a lecture at Penn State by alumna Darwina Neal (’65 B.S. L.Arch.), who at the time was chief landscape architect for the National Capital Region of the National Park Service and national president of the American Society of Landscape Architects.
Although Schneckenburger never intended to pursue a career in public service, she says her work at the National Park Service quickly showed her how rewarding it could be. She considers one of her early projects, in Washington, D.C., to be a turning point. Amy led a study of the visual impact of a proposed building to be located seven miles south of the National Mall. Plans called for the building to be the tallest between New York City and Atlanta, meaning it could obstruct the views people enjoyed from the monumental core in Washington, D.C., and other significant historic and tourist sites in the metro area.
Because of that study, the building was never built. “The project really showed me the importance of public service. Our study ultimately affected the quality of the experience for millions of people for years to come.”
In addition to Washington, Schneckenburger spent the early part of her career in positions in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Mississippi and Florida. In 1992, she became one of the American Society of Landscape Architects’ first Congressional Fellows (along with E. Lynn Miller, Penn State professor emeritus of landscape architecture), and worked to draft legislation for a nationwide river inventory. From there, she moved to Denver to manage numerous design and planning projects, and in 1998, she went to Yosemite, where she managed the development of the Merced Wild and Scenic River Comprehensive Management Plan and co-managed the Yosemite Valley Plan.
Both were controversial projects, owing in large part to their location in one of the most popular national parks in the country.
Scheckenburger’s work at Yosemite fueled her interest in public policy and led her to take a leave of absence to pursue a master’s degree in public policy at Princeton. She says she wanted to explore other mechanisms for conserving and managing public land and investigate ways to “more effectively meet the conservation mission.”
After Schneckenburger graduated in 2001, she became a Public Lands Fellow at The Wilderness Society in Washington, D.C., where she established a national coalition for the protection of the newly established National Landscape Conservation System (NLCS), the most innovative American land system created in the last 50 years. The goal of the NLCS, which includes vast areas of land amounting to more than 40 million acres primarily west of the Rockies, is to set aside and protect entire landscapes based on their ecological, scientific and/or cultural value.
“I was excited about the establishment of the NLCS in 2000—it was a bold and much-needed step in ecosystem conservation—and wanted the opportunity to make others aware of and excited about this new system of protected areas,” Schneckenburger says. “There were—and continue to be—threats to each of the newly established conservation areas, and I feel like I was involved in something incredibly important.”
Currently Amy is fulfilling another very important role—that of mother to her 2 ½-year-old daughter, Grace Ann. Now living in New York, she is also serving as an independent consultant and undertaking research on water conservation and organic and sustainable farming. Her husband, Mike Reynolds, is also a career National Park Service employee and currently serves as superintendent of Fire Island National Seashore.
In addition to her leadership positions within the National Park Service, Schneckenburger served for four years as national vice president for public affairs for the American Society of Landscape Architects, and has spoken internationally as an advocate for water conservation.
Amy’s passion for her work has propelled her forward in her career, and she plans to return to public service in a land/water conservation and management role when her daughter gets older. “It’s what I’m meant to do,” she says. “Public service can be incredibly rewarding. If you’re passionate about it, nothing else will be as fulfilling.” –AMM
from beaver stadium to west africa: used blue band instruments revive church of tomegbe band
When the tuba player in the Presbyterian church band in the West African village of Tomegbe blows a note, he has Penn State to thank for the instrument on which he performs. And so do the percussionists, who keep the beat on drums formerly played by the Blue Band in Beaver Stadium.
How did instruments from a university in Pennsylvania end up in this tiny West African community? Through the efforts and goodwill of Edem Adubra (’02 Ph.D. Educational Administration), who worked with Blue Band Director O. Richard Bundy to donate used instruments to a church in his hometown of Tomegbe, in the tiny country of Togo.
Several years ago, Adubra was in Togo conducting research for his dissertation and stopped in Tomegbe, where he watched and listened to the church band perform on instruments that “didn’t do justice to their talents as musicians.” “I couldn’t help thinking with envy of my university’s famous Blue Band with its shining equipment and supporting environment,” he says.
At the time, the church band made a request for support. Pledges poured in from the congregation, but Adubra knew the money raised was far from enough to repair the instruments, let alone purchase new ones. Fast-forward a few months later, to September 11, 2001. Several days after the terrorist attacks, Adubra, as president of the International Students Council, spoke during a ceremony in front of Old Main. The Blue Band also played during the event, and at the end of the ceremony, Bundy thanked Adubra for his remarks.
“I also thanked him for the band’s performance,” Adubra notes. “The soothing effect of the music on the crowd’s emotion reminded me of the similar effect my village band would have during funerals at home.”
The whole experience got Adubra thinking, and a few days later he set up a meeting with Bundy to discuss donating used Blue Band instruments to the Church of Tomegbe. Bundy was happy to do so and contacted Penn State’s salvage and surplus office to learn the proper procedures for donating the instruments. “When Edem approached me, I thought this was an interesting possibility and mentioned some of the instruments that we had recently cycled out of our active stock,” says Bundy. “These were instruments that were still playable and in reasonably good mechanical condition. I was very glad we were able to make this connection with the band musicians in Togo. Much of the credit goes to Edem for coming forward with the idea.”
Because Adubra’s late father had helped provide the initial instruments for the Church of Tomegbe band, he says he felt “committed to the legacy.” So committed that he paid for the shipping of the instruments himself after he’d stored them for two years. Adubra says he was afraid the band members would be disappointed with the instruments because they did not look brand new. “But to my surprise, they stood out relatively ‘brilliant’ in comparison with the band’s current instruments. The band and the congregation cheered during the church service when they were presented and the band paraded in the village after church to show them off.”
According to Adubra, the band relies primarily on donations from the village’s diaspora (those who have left Africa), but those individuals are also often supporting their family members still in Togo. Therefore, their contributions cannot sustain an organized structure like a band. The band plays an important role in the Church of Tomegbe, where music and dancing are an integral part of worship, and in the community’s social life.
Unfortunately the social life in the rural community is not enough for some of the youth, leading them to resort to unhealthy or illegal activities. Adubra notes that the young people are eager to learn how to play an instrument, but the lack of instruments has excluded many kids who want to join the band. “An additional trumpet, drum or pair of cymbals is always an opportunity to save a few more young persons at risk,” Adubra says.
Adubra says he hopes the Blue Band will donate instruments in the future if they become available. –AMM
penn state students to perform in 2007 heinz hall concert
On March 3, 2007, Penn State music students will perform in a concert in Heinz Hall, Pittsburgh, as part of the Alumni Association’s successful City Lights series. The “President’s Concert” (to be attended by Penn State President Graham Spanier) will begin at 8 p.m., preceded by an alumni reception. The Penn State groups scheduled to perform include the Symphonic Wind Ensemble, Philharmonic Orchestra, Concert Choir and Centre Dimensions (jazz ensemble). A jazz combo will provide entertainment at the reception.
This concert is part of a collaboration between Penn State’s School of Music and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, a collaboration that was revived in spring 2006, when the Pittsburgh Symphony Chamber Orchestra and Marvin Hamlisch visited the University Park campus. That residency included a Side-by-Side Concert with Penn State students and members of the Pittsburgh Symphony.
Please visit the Alumni Association’s Web site at www.alumni.psu.edu in the coming months for more details on the Heinz Hall concert, including how to obtain tickets. –FWM
