Planning Student Scholarship Award Winners

Each year, through the generosity of the membership, the Washington Chapter honors a planning student at each of the accredited planning programs in the state. This year’s recipients, Genevieve Dial Keesecker at Eastern Washington University and Joshua Janet at the University of Washington, are being awarded a $3,000 scholarship. Scholarships are awarded based on these criteria: academic excellence, commitment, potential future effectiveness in the field of planning, financial need and demonstrated interest in planning issues. We congratulate the winners and look forward to their contributions to the profession.

About the winners:

Genevieve Dial Keesecker is a graduate student in Eastern Washington University’s Master in Urban and Regional Planning Program, pursuing a specialization in Environmental Planning. Currently, she is working with a Spokane neighborhood to create a community development plan and is beginning her thesis related to gaps in connectivity within the City’s extensive Centennial Trail system. Before starting her Master’s work, Genevieve worked for the Recreation and Conservation Office where she developed Washington State’s first strategic plan for the management and eradication of invasive species.

Genevieve has an ardent calling to help establish strong communities and neighborhoods and to promote resilience through the advancement of creative planning strategies. She strives to be an ambassador for change through her interest in long-range planning, policy change, and implementation. She would like to use her professional background and newfound knowledge of the planning process to continue enhancing sustainability efforts and New Urbanist principles in urban planning.

Joshua Janet is a first year Master of Urban Planning student at the University of Washington. Originally from New Jersey, Joshua graduated from Lehigh University in 2008 with degrees in Architecture and Civil Engineering. He served as a project engineer with Timothy Haahs and Associates for six years, where he worked on numerous mixed-use projects with a focus on parking. He earned his engineering license from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 2013. In his spare time in Philadelphia, he covered the Philadelphia Flyers hockey team as an accredited hockey writer.

At the University of Washington, Joshua is specializing in Land Use, Infrastructure, and Transportation Planning and has spent the past academic year working with Professor Jan Whittington on research related to climate change and infrastructure planning. He is the student representative for both the Young Planners Group (YPG) Puget Sound Chapter and the Puget Sound Section of the APA. He also worked with the Community Development department at the City of Normandy Park this past Spring as well as attended the National APA conference in Seattle.