Only reason why I knew about AIAS was because my community college professor kept stressing how beneficial it was. Got to Woodbury, found out he was right.
Meeting fellow architecture students between the west and east coast, connecting with local chapters (UCLA, USC, Cal Poly Pomona and SLO) has been so valuable. We are all in the same city, but studying architecture with different variations at our school. Coming together, sharing ideas and simply feeling that sense of connection with others outside of myself, studio and Woodbury is powerful.
Traveling one of the best parts. Annual AIAS Forum conferences are in different cities every year (2016 – San Fran), GRASSROOTS leadership conference is in D.C. (July 7 – 10th) and the Quad Conference for all west coast schools was in Vegas back in February. What better way to celebrate your studies than to physically visit other cities in our nation and see how they get down. On these trips, you notice and learn things about design that you don’t learn in your own studio. You see how the climate of Vegas changes everything about how they would design a Casino. You see how homes and businesses sustain themselves on San Fran’s historic sloped grounds. Not to mention, you do it with people with like minds.
On campus, AIAS is awesome because it’s usually a small group (about 10-15 students who hold executive board positions). I can’t speak for past or future years, but it is always refreshing to attending our weekly 1 hour meetings. There were 5th years busy with thesis, graduate students looking weary and exhausted and 3rd year’s balancing internships. But every week, for one hour, we were joined by passion, leadership and a want to explore and spread architecture in our own ways and collaboratively.
If you have ideas for what students on campus may need or would like to change or events or volunteer opportunities, this is your time to step up.
If I can write my own testimony, I would simply say that of the many things AIAS given me, it’s a network of a few powerful students right here on campus. When one of us would cancel a lasercut appointment, our AIAS group is the first to know, so someone who needs it could get dips. Peer reviews, helping each other with deadlines and making models… the support group was everything. You also get to know the faculty very well. If they see an issue, they come to you. If you see something is wrong, you come to them. That connection is strong because you become the student-Go To for issues with in our school. To me, that makes these few years of our educational experience that much more valuable.
SO, RUN FOR A POSITION WITH AIAS! ELECTIONS ARE APRIL 15TH. Besides, I see it as a way to make your mark on everything you care about while you are studying.
See below for the positions and contact AIAS for more information:
GRADUATE/UNDERGRADUATE PRESIDENT
INTERNAL/EXTERNAL VICE PRESIDENT
TREASURER
SECRETARY
EVENT COORDINATOR
LICENSING ADVISOR
P.S. Click here to learn about the next national event you, a current passionate architecture student, is already invited to.
Sincerely,
Your 2015 – 2016 AIAS Secretary, ready to pass on the experience to the excited and ready ’16 – ’17 Secretary
Thank you for giving me an amazing, fulfilled year! Now, it’s your turn.