Landscape Architecture senior Luke Kasitz began his journey toward a future in the Green Industry quite naturally.

He grew up on an orchard — one of seven children — where he was home schooled by parents who instilled in him “a genuine concern for helping people.”

He brought that caring instinct to Temple University Ambler, where he left a legacy of community service while maintaining an impressive 3.78 grade point average, taking advantage of learning and service opportunities abroad, and earning numerous academic accolades.

Kasitz was drawn to Temple University Ambler, he said, “because I really liked the campus — its landscape features — and I was impressed by the core group of faculty.”

During his sophomore year, he founded Owlreach, a student organization solely dedicated to community service.

And in his junior year, he founded Jubilee at Ambler, a Christian organization that values community service as an important part of its mission.

Since their inception, the two organizations have held a wide array of programs to support families, children and communities in need — from holiday toy drives, clothing drives and food drives to feeding the homeless in Philadelphia, supporting a child in Indonesia through bake sales and holding community clean-up days in the region.

“I believe in action — the only way the world is going to change is by people becoming passionate about it,” he said. “A single voice can be very powerful, but many voices together can be that much more powerful.”

Amid his community advocacy work, Kasitz received numerous accolades for his academic endeavors and landscape architecture projects.

In 2006, he became a Sigma Alpha Lambda Landscape Architecture Honors Society inductee. He also has received the Pennsylvania Garden Club Regional Conference Scholarship, the National American Society of Landscape Architects Council of Fellows Award and a scholarship to attend the national ASLA conference, and the Woman’s National Farm and Garden Association scholarship. In 2007, he received the Ambler Collegial Assembly Award for Distinguished Academic Achievement, the Award for Conservation Education, the ASLA Student Achievement of Honor and Merit Award, and was a Dean’s Leadership Award recipient.

While other students might have been enjoying a relaxing summer between semesters, Kasitz spent the summers of 2004 and 2005 in Brazil, where he worked at a youth center. He spent summer 2006 volunteering for an environmental engineering mission in Port au Prince, Haiti. In fall 2006, he received a study abroad scholarship to attend Temple University Rome.

In all of his endeavors, Kasitz wants to take a “proactive approach to landscape architecture.”

“I want to use my education to help people, and I want to do that as part of a team of people,” he said. “I really want to go somewhere with a group of educated, talented people who will take a holistic approach to community development.”

As this part of his journey ends, Kasitz’s advice for students just starting their college career is simple.

“Take an inventory of the opportunities that come to you, academically and socially, and see the bigger picture,” he said. “Value your education to help yourself but also to help others.”