A strong will and a good work ethic has landscape architecture student Kyle Seaback headed in the right direction. Growing up in Georgetown, Texas, Seaback found himself spending his free time playing baseball and mowing lawns. Running his own lawn business in high school led Seaback to Texas Tech.

“I mowed lawns for four years,” Seaback said. “I would do 10 lawns a weekend; that turned into 20 or so on a summer week. When I go home, I still do some work for people. But that work inspired me to choose landscape architecture.”

Seaback is involved in a Christian fraternity on campus, where he is the vice president.

“[The role] has definitely taught me a lot of leadership qualities,” Seaback said. “Taught me how to be responsible and taught me a lot of time management.”

Between his schoolwork and his involvement in his fraternity he does a good job at filling his days. His days are soon to be filled with a hands-on internship.

“[Mowing lawns] inspired me to choose landscape architecture.”

– Kyle Seaback

“In the landscape architecture program, we have a whole semester set for an internship,” he explained. “[For me], that’ll be this next January [2023]. My plan is to go home to Austin, [Texas], to work for the [planning and design consulting] firm, Kimley-Horn.”

Seaback’s professor, Muntazar Monsur, Ph.D., sees great qualities in him.

“He stood out for his positive attitude, integrity, and hard work,” Monsur said. “I would especially mention his constant attention to detail and visualization skills to communicate his design ideas.”

His love of landscape architecture that sprung from mowing lawns in his hometown is stronger than ever today. Seaback plans to make a career out of his passion.  

“I would like to work for a bigger firm for the first couple of years,” said Seaback. “Then I would like to own my own firm, specializing in commercial work with some residential pool building.”