According to the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards' NCARB by the Numbers 2020 report, fewer than one in five new architects in 2019 identified as a racial or ethnic minority. To help improve those numbers, mentorship programs across the country are taking steps to broaden and diversify the pipeline of youth interested in architecture. One such initiative is the nonprofit Atlanta Center for Creative Inquiry (ACCI).
Founded in 2004 by architect Oscar Harris, ACCI offers low-cost, week-long "Summer Academy" sessions that introduce high schoolers of color to architecture, engineering, and construction. Hosted on the campuses of Georgia Tech and Kennesaw State University, groups of 15 to 20 young people work with two professors and two college student mentors on projects like transforming a garden into a community training center, or designing sustainable, “off-the-grid” container buildings for a town in Haiti. Participants also visit firms’ offices and construction sites and hear from diverse local architects who come in to share their thoughts on the profession and their experience in it.
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