SCAD NOMA Chapter Competition

We are a group of extraordinary architecture students from the Savannah College of Art and Design and we are participating in the National Organization of Minority Architects, Barbara G. Laurie Design Competition 2023. Our team goal is, for this year, to have every person participating be able to attend the event in Portland. This GoFundMe page is one of the many fundraising activities that our team is doing to raise money. If you're interested, please read on to see what this event is and why it means so much to us and SCAD.

All the students from our team attend the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), the college for creative careers. SCAD's mission is to prepare talented students for creative professions through engaged teaching and learning in a positively oriented university environment. Currently, SCAD offers more than 100 majors and 75 minors that explore all aspects of creative career opportunities. As SCAD architecture students, we learn the environmental, social, and sustainability issues that affect how structures are mapped out. We apply historical, cultural, topographical, theoretical, and aesthetic factors to concept skyscrapers, museums, mixed-use developments, and other real-world sites. Many students on the team are also active participants in the Integrated Path to Architecture Licensure (IPAL), a program that allows students to combine work experience with their education to pass the professional exams while still in school. This opportunity allows students to graduate as licensed architects from SCAD. This competition experience is one of the many ways the students are gaining practical AXP experience to take active steps towards that future. When you support us in this competition, you are supporting that dream and helping it become a reality. We chose to go to SCAD because we want to be more involved in our careers and more prepared for them.

As well as SCAD IPAL students, the members of the team are also members of the National Organization of Minority Architecture Students (NOMAS), the SCAD chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA). NOMA is committed to promoting diversity and inclusion in the field of architecture, a passion we all have as we move into our futures as architects. They strive for a better future where architects can be recognized for their achievements based on who they are, not what they look like. Every year, NOMA organizes a student design competition that pushes students to create design solutions for areas that have been victims of gentrification or injustices towards their community's culture. The Barbara G. Laurie Student Design Competition now features over 40 NOMAS chapters from across the country. The competition is a highlight at the annual National Conference where the students will present their work to other students, a panel of judges, and professionals. The conference is a wonderful opportunity for students to engage with working professionals to gain connections with professionals in the field for potential internships. We hope to give everyone on the team this amazing opportunity to travel to represent their project this year in Portland, where the conference will be held.

Our team is working hard to make our dream a reality. We are all passionately working on our design for the competition, engaging in weekly meetings, design charettes, and a lecture series to help our younger less experienced members (on top of our schoolwork and jobs). Through our efforts, we hope to create a thoughtful, provocative project that places in this year's competition! The opportunity to travel to Portland for the conference to gain the exposure to field, expand our professional networks, engage in learning opportunities at the workshops, and, most importantly, the ability to represent SCAD NOMAS with our design proposal, would be so memorable and rewarding for our future careers. We are taking multiple steps to gather the funds needed to send the entire team to the conference this year, this GoFundMe being one of them. We ask that, if you can, help fund our goal and help us get the entire team to the finish line!

Thank you for taking the time to read through this and helping our team!