Most students boast that they know the university inside and out once they’ve been handed their diplomas. But when Bobby Tjaden graduated in 2008, his work here was just beginning.

Tjaden, 24, joined the Facilities Management staff only days after graduating from this university with a degree in landscape architecture. Two years ago, he spent his days drawing and studying inside classrooms, but now he finds himself consulting on designs for major campus projects.

Tjaden first began work with Facilities Management in his second year as a landscape architecture student when he interned to fulfill a graduation requirement.

“When they pulled me on, I was doing little stuff, like basic designing type stuff,” he said. “Eventually, as I kept working, they kept giving me more and more projects. A reason I really enjoyed it was because of how [school and work] paralleled each other. … I’d see the behind-the-scenes meetings and then I’d get to actually do some of the work.”

Once hired, the small projects turned into large-scale designing and consulting jobs. Tjaden even found himself working with a small staff on the Peace and Friendship Garden, located in front of the President’s Residence on the campus. The project, he said, quickly became one of his favorites because working with a small group of professionals enabled him to give more creative input.

Tjaden also worked on the Garden of Reflection and Remembrance, which took nearly four years to complete and was unveiled Oct. 29 on the south side of the Memorial Chapel. Much of the project’s success, he added, stemmed from the fact that it was a collaborative process.

“I don’t think I could say that I designed any one part of the garden,” he said. “There’s no design that’s just one person — it’s always a group effort. It was the university’s effort.”

Tjaden said he was grateful to have the internship that eventually landed him a job fresh out of college, while many of his peers are still struggling to find work.

“A lot of the landscape architecture jobs are in the housing market, so no one was really hired when we graduated, and I guess some of them still aren’t,” he said.

“Luckily, [Facilities Management] offered me a job. I guess I had kind of cut a hole for myself.”

Scott Munroe, Tjaden’s supervisor and a landscape architect in Facilities Management, said he’s watched Tjaden’s skills develop over the past five years and has high hopes for him in the future.

“I think he’s been growing immensely as far as his capabilities, and we’re working him into being a project manager,” Munroe said. “He’s integrated himself very well with the staff, and he’s done a very good job in his growth with project management.”

As for Tjaden’s future plans, he said his top priority is to become a fully licensed landscape architect by the summer. The process, he said, entails passing a series of rigorous exams that are often considered second in difficulty compared to the Medical College Admission Test.

But that next — and possibly most difficult — milestone is one Tjaden said will take his design abilities to the next level.

“If I get my license, I’ll have the status of being a professional landscape architect, and right now there are designs and projects I technically can’t do yet,” he said.

Tjaden added he hopes to own his own design firm one day and find a way to integrate environmentally friendly practices into his projects.

“Eventually, I’d like to merge the green initiative ideas and sustainability ideas to site development,” Tjaden said. “But while I’m here, I just want to keep doing what I’m doing.”

abutaleb at umdbk dot com