Mentorship Program

The Mentorship Program is designed to support designers at all ages and stages!

Welcome to our brainstorm – we’re a WORK IN PROGRESS!  Eventually this section will list all of the resources available via the Mentorship Program, but for now it’s a working list of what those resources should strive to accomplish and how.

Keep reading below for information on our Pre-Professional Pipeline Program for K-12+ students and our Professional Mentorship & Advocacy Program for current professionals.

Pre-Professional Pipeline Program

This program is designed to inspire K-12+ students to fall in love with design and to provide the resources necessary to help them pursue this dream.

General Ponderings

  • We have to stop emphasizing to young aspiring designers all the negative sides of being an architect; this bemoaning “architecture isn’t worth it” mentality isn’t helping!
    • Students are likely to not pursue architecture if they perceive it as a risk
    • A career in architecture provides a richness of experience and influence even if the compensation is not high in comparison to other professions
    • We all need a pep talk!
  • How can we make sure we’re recruiting equitably?
    • Compare statistics of those involved in the mentorship program to the demographics of Santa Barbara
      • If the numbers don’t match, we need to continue to strategize on how to reach out
    • Work with ACE and SoCalNOMA to connect with students in K -12 and higher education
    • Continue the support by having mentors from all stages of career development
      • Recruit those who participate in our early programs to give back as mentors; it is what makes programs sustainable

Junior High Recruitment Ideas

  • We need to introduce students to architecture as early as possible
    • Without this intro, how can we expect them to want to pursue a career in the field?
    • What about on campus introductions or a summer camp program?

High School Recruitment Ideas

  • “Ask an Architect” program with local schools
  • Participate in career fairs
  • Participate in MAD/VADA at SBHS and Engineering Academy at DPHS
  • Involvement with Housing Authority youth residents (after school tutoring)
  • Kids Draw Architecture
    • Events are already in public locations with the goal of being able accessible

Higher Education Requirement Ideas

  • Participate in SBCC and CalPoly SLO programs
  • Scholarships (connect with AFSB?)
    • We can specify requirements for scholarship to reach a better range of students (perhaps specifying ones that have a particular income level and perhaps not necessarily the top grades for particular scholarships?)
  • Support students by allowing students annually to present to professionals.
    • This gives students confidence and able to share their work without fear of it affecting their grades

Professional Mentorship & Advocacy Program

This program is designed to support the career growth of current design professionals.

Programming Ideas

  • Continue to pair established professionals with emerging professionals to help with career growth
    • Established professionals can help open doors for emerging professionals
    • Emerging professionals can serve as educators/advocates to their mentors (especially to provide unbiased feedback from EP’s not within your firm)
  • Mentorship for licensure
  • AIASB to provide educational information (lecture, document, events) on self-advocacy
    • What do you talk about in your annual review?
    • How do you ask for a raise?
    • How do you get put on the projects you are interested in?
    • What does the career path look like for someone in a similar area of work?
    • What are alternative career paths?
  • Internships
    • How to route interns to smaller offices that might not be able to financially support them (grant funding, co-op sharing)?
    • Maybe instead do a pool of interns (grant funding? Tiered pay levels for different firm sizes?) that can then match with firms (receive equal pay)
  • Career Development
    • Non-recruitment resume and portfolio reviews
    • Highlight firms and individuals in our local chapter on website so that students and young professionals can get a better idea of what is going on in our community and they have a better understanding of what happens
    • Assuming that everyone knows everyone in town is a privilege; being able to have firms and individuals explain what they do helps inform and level the playing field for young professionals
Back To Top