"Designing Tomorrow's Architect- Implementing an IDP Diversity Initiative

Question: "What would you change about architectural internship?"

I would … introduce a mandatory Diversity Initiative … requisite for professionals on a regular basis as well for interns. For a component of the internship, have each firm host at least one intern who is as different as possible from the firm's 'makeup'/profile. Initially, this could be run as a pilot program or a competition, awarding points for degrees of diversity (maybe modeled after the IDP Firm of the Year Award). Imagine the impact of placing a young white male intern from the rural south in a black urban firm or giving a non-traditional (mature) female intern a chance to intern at a trendy young Hispanic firm in Miami!

"Why?"

The title for the 2005 Internship Conference, "Designing Tomorrow's Architect" suggests that something crucially formative happens at the overlap/intersection of the academy and the profession which 'blueprints' (forgive the archaic terminology) the identity of tomorrow's architects. Based on my experience as a school coordinator for over five years and as a graduate of a Coop program myself, I believe this to be true. It does not just happen to interns. It happens to mentors, supervisors, and clients. Internship can and does change the perspectives of senior members of the profession as well as the "initiates".

The designers of our built environment must be sensitive to its demographic character. The "five collaterals" recognize the need for diversity in our profession. For example, the recently revived AIA Diversity Committee sponsors regular sessions at annual meetings and published 20 on 20/20 Vision- Perspectives on Diversity and Design in 2003. The AIA is funding statistical analyses of schools and profession with a view to improving diversity. In 2004, the NAAB introduced a new learning criterion which mandates that students have an understanding of "trends that affect practice such as globalization, outsourcing …. expanding practice settings, diversity …" . The same year, "Diversity" was the celebrated theme for the ACSA Beginning Design conference. Entitled Not White, it was held at Hampton University, a 'Historically Black' campus. In ACSA, we are electing increasingly diverse leaders in terms of age, gender and ethnicity.

Unlike the NAAB criterion, the ACSA conferences or the AIA Diversity Committee's initiatives, the IDP represents a tangible interface where professionals and interns meet often with surprising results. As a white non-American woman coordinating IDP in a school with a large 'minority' population, our experience with 'majority' professionals is that they truly enjoy the cultural interchange and diverse outlook our students and interns bring to their firms. Similarly a white woman in her mid forties who graduated last year was surprised to discover how valuable "her maturity" is to her firm.

With its practical emphasis at the crucial place where students meet the profession for the first time, IDP could implement some changes both quickly and inclusively. We could collectively brainstorm and message the details to create a Diversity Initiative for IDP with powerful, real, exciting and immediate and inclusive effects! The result might be that tomorrow's Architects might look and be quite different!

1 - Published in conjunction with the Boston Society of Architects; Linda Kiisk, AIA, editor.
2 - Criterion # 30 - Architectural Practice in NAAB Conditions for Accreditation, 2004 Edition

Note: IDP Coordinators were asked to respond to a more specific question based on their unique experiences with the interns.