Taubman College ArcPrep Featured on Detroit’s NBC-Affiliate WDIV-TV Channel 4
Taubman College’s Michigan Architecture Preparatory Program (ArcPrep), led this year by 2016 – 2017 Michigan Mellon Design Fellows Suzanne Lettieri and Paulina Reyes, was featured in a news story by Detroit’s NBC-Affiliate WDIV-TV Channel 4 in a story entitled “Architecture program encourages minority students.”
“We face a crisis in architecture. A crisis of diversity particularly in underrepresented minorities,” explained program creator and former Taubman College Associate Dean, Milton Curry. Curry created the program to help educate minorities about a career in architecture. “If everyone is not represented in our educational system, educating the people that design those buildings then there’s going to be more of a myopic view as to who and what those buildings are for,” said Curry.
This year’s program, which partners with Detroit Public Schools, has 40 high school juniors, mostly from Cass Tech and Renaissance High School. Reyes explains that “It’s really kind of an architecture 101.” It introduces the students to architecture as a discipline and also fundamental skills.
“Do you wanna be an architect? Local 4’s Evrod Cassimy asked ArcPrep student Talon Foster. “Yes!” Foster exclaimed. He hopes this class will help him get into U of M. That’s where he wants to work towards his architecture aspirations. “Even if you don’t want to be an architect, architecture can lead to a bunch of other fields,” said Foster.
The program is only available to juniors at partnering Detroit Public Schools. Funding is provided by U of M Taubman College, A. W. Mellon Foundation, the Kresge Foundation and the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan.
For the full article: http://www.clickondetroit.com/community/architecture-program-encourages-minority-students
