Commit to your passion
Rikerrious Geter
Rikerrious Geter (BLA ’16) works to bring the environment and communities together in memorable and lasting ways.
At a glance
Rikerrious Geter (BLA ’16) is a project designer at Gustafson Guthrie Nichol.
He is a student mentor and active member of the Washington Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects.
He was featured as a 2016 UGA Amazing Student.
Rikerrious currently serves on the Seattle Design Commission.
“There are other students like me who have goals bigger than their parents’ checkbooks and I want to help students reach those goals.”
Rikkerious Geter
Rikerrious Geter (BLA ’16) was told that he would never get into UGA. But that only fueled his fire; he earned his admission to UGA, despite the doubt. He knew UGA was the right school for him because of the nationally ranked College of Environment and Design program. Furthermore, he deeply admired the school as a young high school student. “For me, all roads pointed to UGA,” he said.
As a student, Rikerrious soon became a part of the tight-knit Bulldog community. With the financial help of alumni-sponsored scholarships and mentorship from professors and landscape architecture alumni, he gained confidence in his abilities and the peace of mind that he could afford to finish school. It was alumni’s involvement and commitment to UGA students that inspired him to serve his community and dive deep into his career post-graduation. Their altruism instilled in Rikerrious a generous attitude and self-confidence. He strives to be like the alumni who helped him by giving back to the scholarship and mentorship programs that significantly shaped him.
As a project designer at Gustafson Guthrie Nichol in Seattle, Washington, Rikerrious has worked on projects around the globe. He uses his degree in unique and challenging ways every day. “It’s very collaborative,” he said, “You get to work with the stakeholders, engineers, architects, and other consultants to make your vision a reality.” Landscape architecture comes with the challenge of communication and the constraints of money, physics, and building codes to ensure public safety. However, Rikerrious loves seeing the intersection between public spaces and the environment come to life through those limitations. “A part of my passion will always exist in cities people can enjoy endlessly,” he said.
He has long held a passion for the natural environment and landscape architecture allows him to both celebrate the environment and serve communities. “I want to sustainably shape and influence communities by creating social spaces people want to be in. My work can bring a lot of value to communities and cities,” he said.
As a testament to his passion for landscape architecture, Rikerrious currently serves on the Seattle Design Commission, advocating for sustainable-focused design that commemorates the diverse cultures of surrounding communities in Seattle.
While at UGA, Rikerrious loved driving the university buses part-time. “I saw students interacting and all of campus every day,” he said. “It made me appreciate the bigger picture of the campus community.” It is this community to which Rikerrious aims to give back. “There are many students who have ambitions and goals bigger than their parents’ checkbooks, so I knew I needed to help students reach their goals, as many donors did for me.”
“The College of Environment and Design students bring a lot of value to our cities and we need more landscape architects making impacts across the world,” Rikerrious said. He mentors college students in Washington through the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) Washington chapter − the same organization that connected him to his alumni mentors while at UGA. He also helps oversee scholarships for landscape architecture students, actively serving students in tangible ways. Taking the lead from the CE+D alumni who invested in him as a student, Rikerrious hopes that his contributions to the College of Environment and Design Excellence Fund will enable students like him to reach their goals and inspire them to find confidence in their work and abilities.
Written by Hannah Glass ’19
