Alumni Door County Profile: Max Dickson

Max Dickson. Submitted.

Each week the Peninsula Pulse profiles alumni from Door County schools, sharing what they’re up to, what Door County taught them and what inspired them. To suggest an alumnus or alumna to profile, email [email protected]. To learn more about Alumni Door County, visit alumnidoorcounty.org.

One of the best parts about 2011 Gibraltar High School graduate Max Dickson’s new job is his opportunity to remain connected with the county where he grew up. That, and the ability to use nature to create social spaces and public engagement.

In August, Dickson moved to Philadelphia to work at OLIN as a landscape designer. He’s enjoyed exploring his new Pennsylvania home and tackling opportunities to work on interesting, large-scale projects.

“It’s connecting with people and using design and public space and nature as a connecting fabric,” Dickson said. “[I like] how design can be an aspect for social equity and for environmental equity.” 

He praises Gibraltar for encouraging students to explore what interests them as they grow up. Dickson was involved in theater, band, choir, forensics, soccer, basketball and track, and he took AP classes on top of it. All of this set him up for postgrad success.

“One of the things I’m grateful for about Gibraltar is being able to explore athletics, academics and the arts in as many different ways as possible,” Dickson said.

Being involved in so many activities allowed him to interact with different social groups, providing him with a more well-rounded background. That informed how he fostered relationships later on.

A piece that was missing from Dickson’s Door County education, however, was diversity. When he went to college, it was a bit of a shock to have 900 students living in his dorm alone, when he had graduated with a class of 45 in a school of 200. College afforded him the chance to start meeting people from all over the world and with all sorts of backgrounds.

Dickson earned his undergraduate degree in 2016 from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities’ landscape-architecture program, then returned to pursue his master’s degree in both landscape architecture and urban and regional planning.

Dickson attributes his career interests to the Door County ecosystems he grew up with. 

“It really influenced my path in pursuing landscape architecture and bringing green space and other natural systems to people in all aspects of their life,” Dickson said.

And he’s been able to use his education and talents to improve his home community. Through an internship, Dickson has worked with the Baileys Harbor Plan Commission, and during a weekend of community sessions, he was part of a design team tasked with coming up with some action plans.

He’s also worked on the Horseshoe Bay Farms restoration project, to which his family has deep ties. His mother grew up there, and his grandparents grew up and worked there. 

Dickson is still involved with the project as a consultant, working on the master plan created by the Minnesota firm TEN x TEN. He hopes to continue working on projects close to home.

“I never thought that this opportunity would come to be able to work so close to my home, but I really love working on it, and it’s something I’m personally connected to,” Dickson said.

His advice to upcoming grads? Keep an open mind. There might be that one thing you had your mind set on for postgrad life, but it doesn’t always work out that way. Embrace new experiences as they come.

“There’s more to the world than what we see at first,” Dickson said.