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The Washington Architectural Foundation Youth Programs provides young people in the DC Metropolitan area with opportunities to explore the world of architecture, typically not discussed in the K-12 education system or surrounding youth-focused nonprofits in our local area.

Join Gina Volpicelli, Chair of WAF, and Heidi Sohng, Youth Programs Manager at WAF, for a complete volunteer overview of WAF's youth programs. Attendees will be able to describe what each program entails and how they improve the quality of life for its participants.
Attendees will be able to practice engagement skills to talk to students, just as they would to clients. Attendees will be able to identify how volunteering in community outreach efforts can improve their firms' PR.

This course will explore various youth programs, including Architecture in the Schools, Design Like a Girl Mentor Program, DACkids Summer Camp, DAC workshops, Design in Action, and classes at ArtReach/GW. Most programs will offer LU credits.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe what each program entails for volunteers and how it benefits students.
• Practice presentation skills to engage students, just as you would your clients.
• Identify how volunteering in community outreach efforts can improve your firms' PR.
• Summarize how to start and form a volunteer team.
   

Presented by: 

Heidi Sohng

Heidi Sohng has an M.A. in Education and a Certificate in Project Management. She worked in the field of education for 20+ years before joining the Washington Architectural Foundation as its Youth Program Manager. She found herself learning all about the fascinating field of architecture and fell in love with it. Now she enjoys collaborating with teachers, students, architects, engineers, designers and construction professionals. She works to build architecture youth-based programming to serve the needs of the DC metropolitan community. Heidi believes in the power of youth to build a better tomorrow!

Gina Volpicelli

Gina Volpicelli is a Senior Associate at Shalom Baranes Associates and is the Chair of the Washington Architectural Foundation (WAF). She is passionate about broadening the reach and understanding of the built environment through what has been her most rewarding professional experience to date, working with elementary and middle school students through the WAF’s Architecture in the Schools (AIS) program. By volunteering in the AIS, she has exercised the students’ analytical and creative skills through the architectural design process and has applied what is learned in the classroom to the built environment. The themes of the programs that she has developed have varied from sustainable design building methods in a program called The Sky’s the Limit: Building a Sustainable City in Outer Space to the students exploring worldwide building types, in a program called Around the World. Since 2011, she has been a volunteer and has co-developed WAF single and multi-session workshop activities for programs including the Tools of the Trade, Archi-Builder, and Summer Camp. These programs inspire an interest in the  built environment, but perhaps more importantly, they leave students feeling empowered to have an effect on their communities.

Sponsored by: 

The Washington Architectural Foundation