by Tim Hayduk
The Center for Architecture Foundation (CFAF) hosted the annual Architecture and Design College Fair on 11.21.14. The event serves to connect high school students with architecture and design schools, scholarships, and mentoring opportunities. This year the fair featured 18 colleges and several other institutions. With more than 150 students and parents attending, the Center for Architecture’s street-level galleries were abuzz with the exchange of questions and answers as students collected brochures from colleges as close as Harlem’s CUNY and as far away as New Orleans’ Tulane University.
We want to thank all of the schools in attendance: Boston Architectural College; City College of New York – The Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture; College for Creative Studies; Cooper Union – The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture; Cornell AAP Architecture Art Planning; Drexel University; Fashion Institute of Technology; New York Institute of Technology; The New School; Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Roger Williams University; Pratt Institute; Tulane University; University of Buffalo, and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Representatives from these schools joined a panel to discuss applying to school, portfolio development, studio culture, and other topics, followed by questions from the audience.
In addition to the colleges and universities, three organizations attending shared opportunities with high school students beginning their career search. ACE Mentor introduces students to trying their hand at careers in architecture, construction and engineering with professional mentors in real workplaces. For 90 years, Scholastic Art and Design Awards has been providing scholarship and mentoring through its annual application and selection process – students submit work to be juried and selected, resulting in “recognition, exhibition, publication, and scholarship.” The CFAF provides the Walter A. Hunt, Jr. Scholarship to “promote and encourage the study of architecture by New York City public high school students through a two-year scholarship to supplement tuition and related costs during their freshman and sophomore years at architecture school.” The deadline for the Walter A. Hunt, Jr. Scholarship is 05.15.15.
As the CFAF becomes aware of more opportunities for the next generation of architects and designers, we will be sure to share this information with the public through our website, www.cfafoundation.org.