Please join us in congratulating NYSA's 2026 Education Award winners: Ivan Hofman and Ethan Knight.

NYSA offers up to two $1,000 awards each year to help cover educational expenses for individuals studying, or planning to study, arboriculture, urban forestry or another tree-related subject and work in the field.

Ivan Hofman is a student in the School of Professional Horticulture at the New York Botanical Garden, where he is also pursuing an arboriculture certificate. He is currently serving an internship at the arboretum at Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery, where he has worked on efforts to increase canopy cover with native, drought-tolerant species. His career goal is to foster ecological principles, design and practices in public horticulture, with a special focus on arboriculture. His work focuses on increasing biodiversity and wildlife habitat, carbon sequestration, recentering tree healthcare and finding creative management alternatives to the use of chemical inputs.

Ivan plans to use his Education Award funds to offset the costs of his current coursework and his application for ISA certification.

Ethan Knight is a student at the School of Agriculture, Business and Technology at SUNY Morrisville. He began learning the basics of arboriculture in his youth by participating in family “work bees,” harvesting trees for his great-grandmother for the winter. He has augmented his classroom studies through summer employment with Michael Grimm Landscape & Tree Service, learning about the equipment used in tree care and the process of becoming a licensed arborist.

Ethan plans to use his NYSA Education Award funds to purchase his own equipment and kickstart his continued in-depth education in the arboriculture field, with the goal of owning his own tree care practice, specifically on the commercial or utility side.

We wish our winners all the best in their studies and their careers. Watch your email and our website this fall for the opening of applications for the 2026 NYSA Education Awards.