Landscape architecture alumni partner to offer student internship in Italy

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — This past summer, Delaney Beal, a recent landscape architecture alumna of the Penn State College of Arts and Architecture’s Stuckeman School, traveled to Florence, Italy, for an internship with Studio Màkia, a design firm run by 2002 Penn State alumnus Philip Adiutori, thanks to support from Adiutori and fellow landscape architecture alumnus Andy Witkin, founder of Witkin Hults + Partners.

Adiutori opened Studio Màkia in 2010 as a two-person operation, but the firm now has 25 landscape architects and architects working on projects throughout Italy and the Mediterranean.

Adiutori and Witkin, who has an apartment in Florence, connected in 2023 thanks to their continuing engagement with the College of Arts and Architecture.

Adiutori said their first meetings were opportunities for Adiutori to pick another Penn Stater’s brain about what it means to run a successful landscape architecture business.

“Andy has had an extremely successful career and so I remember that much of our first conversations was more like me interrogating Andy on how to run a successful studio and create excellent studio culture,” Adiutori said. “We [also] spoke at great length about how important international travel has been for both of our professional careers and personal growth.”

It was during one of the duo’s meetings over coffee or lunch when the idea of an internship at Adiutori’s firm came about, Witkin said, thanks in part to Witkin’s passion for travel.

“Travel makes people better, more understanding, compassionate and empathetic,” Witkin said. “I felt if we could provide an opportunity for a student to travel to a different country and live there while working in a firm such as Philip’s, we would be providing two outstanding outcomes for the student.”

The primary goal of the internship, Witkin said, was to provide an opportunity for a student to “experience life abroad and not study abroad.”

As for the selection process, Aduitori said, he and Witkin wanted to open the opportunity to students who have already had the opportunity to work with some of the main computer programs that the firm uses every day in studio, such as the Adobe Creative Suite, the 3D modeling software Rhino and AutoCAD. The scholarship also required the student to keep a sketchbook of some of the sites they encountered during the internship.

Beal was selected as the recipient after a review process at Penn State.

A native of Collegeville, Pennsylvania, Beal said she previously studied European design and had a strong interest in it since the beginning of her education at Penn State.

“To be able to learn firsthand in Florence fulfilled my educational dreams within Penn State,” Beal said.

As an intern at Studio Màkia, Beal said she had the opportunity to participate in every stage of the design process. She started by familiarizing herself with Italian plant names and learning how to use AutoCAD software in Italian.

“This required me to understand technical vocabulary relating to planting, seasonal conditions, and sunlight exposure,” she said.

After this initial learning period, Beal joined the concept development phase of a project, during which she worked closely with her colleagues to help create a presentation book for the studio’s client.

“My responsibilities included sourcing reference imagery and contributing to graphics, such as the master plan, ecosystem, circulation and material diagrams,” she said.

The experience, she said, gave her valuable insight into Adiutori and his team’s “thoughtful, collaborative approach to design.”

From the beginning of her time with the practice, Beal said that Adiutori expressed how thrilled he was to have her join him and his team. She said he made sure to be “a helping hand” as Beal entered a new world far from home.

“As a newly graduated Penn State alumna, getting to speak with Philip led to conversations that made me excited to dream big within this field,” Beal said. “His love for the profession and eagerness to succeed, while balancing a family and creating a hardworking team of people around him, are inspiring. Anyone would be lucky to have the opportunity to work with him.”

Adiutori said the goal of the internship was to create a wholistic experience of growth for the student – from an academic, professional and personal standpoint – and that there was a conscious effort to make the experience challenging and fun.

As for challenges, the big obstacle was that the studio works primarily in the Italian language.

“This made the experience extremely interesting in studio since both Delaney, as well as my team, had to work together to ensure clear communication amongst them,” Adiutori said. “Delaney and my team excelled in this experiment, and I was amazed at how quickly Delaney was able to integrate into the studio culture.”

In addition to the skills she was learning in the studio, Beal said one of the most valuable lessons she learned was the importance of genuinely loving what you do.

“The experience taught me that professional excellence is not defined by technical ability alone. It also comes from caring deeply about the work, treating others with respect and finding joy in the process of creating something meaningful together,” she said. “This was an extraordinarily rewarding experience, and it shaped the kind of professional, and colleague, I hope to become.”

As for living in Florence, Beal described it simply as a dream. She walked 45 minutes to and from the studio each day and she said she never minded, even on the hottest days, as it gave her time to reflect.

“I arrived alone in a city far from everything familiar, and it was entirely up to me to create a life there for 10 weeks,” she said. “Through my daily routines, friendships and small moments throughout the city, I gained a personal understanding of Italian culture and its strong sense of community and family. By the end of the summer, Florence no longer felt like a place I was simply visiting, it truly felt like a home.”

Witkin said the internship could not have gone better, and it was everything he and Adiutori imagined it could be.

“[Delaney] is a remarkable person who took to this experience like a fish to water,” said Witkin. “Not only did she embrace the experience, Studio Mákia embraced her. I believe this chapter in her life is one that has helped to continue and enhance her professional and personal growth and, in turn, I fully anticipate she will ‘pay it forward.’”