Recent FSU graduates earn scholar awards from Florida Trust for Historic Preservation

Four recent graduates from Florida State University’s Department of History have earned prestigious scholar awards from a statewide nonprofit focused on preserving Florida’s history.

Spring 2025 master’s graduates Hope Evans, Alessio Luna, Jacqueline Vanegas and Jacob Winton were each honored with the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation’s Historic Preservation Scholar Award, which recognizes outstanding current or recently graduated students for early career excellence in the field.

The Florida Trust for Historic Preservation, founded in 1978, promotes the protection of Florida’s heritage. The awards, which were presented at the trust’s Preservation on Main Street Conference in Fernandina Beach, Fla., were first presented in 2024. All recipients so far have hailed from FSU.

“These students have done a remarkable job at becoming both scholars and community advocates,” said Department of History Assistant Professor Kathleen Powers Conti, who nominated the students for the award. “I’m in awe of the tangible impact these students have made in their communities, and I’m excited to see their future accomplishments.”

Evans is a two-time FSU alumna who earned her bachelor’s in 2022 and her master’s in 2025, both in history. While attending FSU, she curated exhibits, guided museum tours and wrote a children’s book about Tallahassee’s historic sites for her role as an education director and curatorial assistant at the John Gilmore Riley Center & Museum for African American History and Culture. Earlier this year, she also received a fellowship from the Vernacular Architecture Forum for her research documenting Smitty’s Club, a Tallahassee hole-in-the-wall opened in 1951 to provide a safe place for Black locals during the Jim Crow South.

“In historic preservation, we protect the physical proof of a community’s history as well as its associated history and memories,” Evans said. “Preserved resources showcase the many types of histories that make up a community, whether that’s locally or nationally.”

Evans currently works as a historic preservationist for the Florida Department of State, where she evaluates and nominates Florida’s historic sites for the National Register of Historic Places and reviews historic resource surveys.

While earning a bachelor’s in communication and historical rhetoric from Florida Gulf Coast University, Luna volunteered at Collier County Museums, prompting him to pursue the historical interest his father instilled in him through graduate studies. In 2023, Luna came to FSU to study history and became the compliance and outreach intern for the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation’s Easement and 11 to Save Grant Fund, which provides protection, awareness and resources to Florida properties, including the annual list of 11 historic sites deemed most endangered.

“This award is a reminder of the opportunities I’ve had to help my community and state,” said Luna, a history alumnus with a concentration in historical administration and public history. “It’s also a motivating factor, encouraging me to continue impacting the field.”

After graduating in May, Luna began working as an architectural historian in Knoxville, Tennessee, where he conducts research across Tennessee and Kentucky at historical and architecturally significant sites.

Vanegas completed a bachelor’s degree with a double major in political science and history at the University of Florida in 2023 before pursuing a master’s in history at FSU. Starting in 2024, she advocated for Florida’s natural resources as a research analyst for the 1000 Friends of Florida not-for-profit organization. Vanegas was recently hired as a preservation planner for the City of Boston, where she’ll raise awareness about the benefits of the city’s historic resources, particularly focusing on the South End, Bay Village and St. Botolph areas.

“At 1000 Friends, I worked on outreach initiatives and facilitated public engagement with historic preservation efforts,” she said. “It’s important to guarantee that relevant structures and spaces are safeguarded across the state.”

Winton, who came to FSU in 2023 after earning a bachelor’s in American history from the University of Alabama in Huntsville, specializes in 20th-century U.S. Southern history. In 2024, he worked as a Tallahassee Trust for Historic Preservation research intern, where he assisted in identifying and documenting historic sites and created an application for the Tallahassee-Leon County Register of Historic Places for a local Episcopal Church, St. Michael & All Angels.

“This application has passed the Tallahassee-Leon County Planning Commission and is awaiting approval from the city council before being added to the register,” Winton said. “My goal with all projects is to work alongside communities to ensure the stories of their local historic sites are told transparently through me, not by me.”

Winton now works as a graduate academic specialist in the FSU College of Social Sciences and Public Policy to help students craft programs of study and assist in managing the international affairs graduate program.

To learn more about the historic preservation graduate program and research conducted in the Department of History, visit history.fsu.edu.