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Janice Cervelli Schach
Scanning Hoosier-born-and-raised Janice Cervelli Schach’s voluminous vita and her honors, fellowships, professional affiliations, publications, and presentations, it’s easy to see why she’s returned to campus and her home state today.
She came to Purdue well-prepared, she says, by high-school honors classes. Yet she felt challenged here—which is exactly what she wanted. She also found a close-knit family in the landscape architecture program and the inspiration to go on to become an educator herself.
From Purdue’s undergraduate program, which she completed in 1979, Schach went on to the University of Guelph in Ontario, earning a Master’s in Landscape Architecture in 1981.
She then spent almost 20 years at the University of Kentucky, teaching and moving into administrative posts, including serving as Dean of Undergraduate Studies from 1999 to 2000.
In 2000, she accepted the position of Dean of the College of Architecture, Arts and Humanities at Clemson University in South Carolina. There, she leads all academic, financial, personnel, and capital facility aspects of a college with 10 academic departments, 7 academic centers, several off-campus study programs, and some 400 faculty and staff.
Since her arrival at Clemson, she’s facilitated creation of four new academic centers and expanded its off-campus study programs while managing all fiscal and administrative matters.
Throughout the years, Schach has performed distinguished service in professional organizations, held high offices, and been recognized many times with teaching, merit, and community awards. One award of particular note is the YWCA Woman of Achievement Award, earned in 1997 for her efforts in linking the university and the Lexington, Kentucky, community and in expanding diversity-related activities.
Others include a 1998 American Council on Education Fellowship—the first ever awarded to a landscape architecture faculty member—and the President’s Award from the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture, an international organization of faculty.
For her outstanding contribution to the food, agriculture, and natural
resources system, the Purdue College of Agriculture is proud to present
the Distinguished Agricultural Alumnus Award to Janice Cervelli Schach.
| Creativity in Bloom
From singing in a rock band while at Purdue to taking voice lessons today—and woodcarving in between—Janice Cervelli Schach counts on creative expression for sustenance. It’s a natural extension of her profession, which includes 20 years as a landscape architect educator and her post now as dean of Clemson’s College of Architecture, Arts and Humanities. Music has long been her passion, and it was almost her major at Indiana University—until she discovered landscape architecture and chose Purdue the summer before her freshman year. That fall, she attended a meeting of the Independent Musicians and Songwriters Club, where, she says, “I got to know some great musicians and songwriters. I still communicate with some of them.” She was a lead singer and played some guitar for the Wooden Ships and Green Mountain Flyer during her Purdue days, with gigs at the Stabilizer and other venues. She performed and recorded in Canada, too, while at graduate school. Now, she’s interested in jazz, especially liking Diana Krall. “If the students will have me, I would absolutely love to perform here. They’ll have to put me in a soundproof room to see if I’m safe for the public.” She’s also drawn to opera these days. “I’ve come full circle.” Woodcarving, too, began at Purdue, with a three-dimension design principles class. That prompted her to try her hand at duck decoys and, more recently, private study with a Native American in Seattle, learning to carve totem poles and masks. “My mother was a professional dancer when she was young, and my father was an engineer who loved the outdoors and traveling,” Schach says. “I’ve combined the engineering side of the world and the artistic side.” |
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