AIS Volunteer Form

AIS teams have taught more than 25,000 DCPS students from K-12 since 1992. 

Architecture in the Schools (AIS) brings professional architecture and engineering teams to Washington DC classrooms for one hour per week for eight weeks (not including planning and transportation time*), providing multiple connections to art and design, mathematics, language arts, science and social studies. Many of the schools are Title 1 schools, with marginalized populations. AIS provides hands-on, project-based learning for students who need it the most.  By pushing into the classroom, architects change student beliefs and attitudes about architecture, making the profession more accessible and equitable. AIS increases social-emotional wellbeing, critical thinking, collaboration, communication skills, and confidence.  

Volunteering can improve your leadership skills, mental health and sense of purpose.

Lead: Create and implement a project with students

Learn: Explain architecture to students as you would to clients; Gain insight into how children experience the built environment

Improve: Increase mental health and life satisfaction

Creating a firm culture that encourages volunteerism also has many benefits. 

Many firms incorporate volunteerism into their culture despite this work taking time out of their busy schedule.  They can justify this given the enormous professional development benefits to their employees.

Volunteering with children is an opportunity to get more insight into their world. It’s also an opportunity for firms to build relationships within their communities, to uncover future clients and their connections. As far as volunteers themselves, it can really help to reignite that spark about why they went into architecture in the first place, reminding them about their passion for the field. It’s also a great opportunity within the firm to put employees together to create an activation for students for team-building purposes. 

Connect: Build relationships within your community; Uncover future clients and connections

Retain: Remind employees of their initial spark

Build: Use volunteering as an opportunity for internal team-building

*How to propose AIS to your firm, and time commitment

Stipend for transportation costs available. Please contact Heidi Sohng for more information about forming a team at your firm.