GSD Career Services names 2007/2008 Community Service Fellows
Community Service Fellowship Awards range from paid summer internships and international travel grants to funding for short-term projects. This year’s fellows are Shannon Simms, MLA ’10, David Lewis MUP ’09, Jonathan Evans MArch I ’10, Brett Albert MArch IAP ’10, Andrew Lantz MArch I AP ’10, Monica Franklin MAUD ’09, Matthew Jull MArch I ’08, Leah Rominger MLA I ’10, Andrew Bryan MArch I ’10, Alda Ly MArch I ’10, Marika Shiori Clark MArch I ’10, Mary Lydecker MLA I ’09, Richard Cinco MArch I ’10, Aron Chang MArch I ’09, Christine Canabou MArch I ’09, Simon Bussiere MLA II ’09, and Quilian Riano MArch I ’09.
Fellows working in Greater Boston
The following students have been awarded funding for ten-week, paid summer internships:
Shannon Simms, MLA I 2010, will work at Worcester Roots, a non-profit organization focused on soil remediation, with a specialty in low-cost soil lead decontamination and abatement in Worcester, MA. The organization works with property owners to find lasting and affordable ways to make their soil safe from lead contamination. Shannon will work with youth members of the Toxic Soil Busters program – a group of teens making neighborhoods healthier and safer by designing lead-safe yards.
David Lewis, MUP 2009, will intern at the Conservation Law Foundation in Boston, which is committed to conserving natural resources. David will engage directly with industry to create sustainable business practices. His projects will include a plan to transform a former power plant south of Boston to new uses, identification of potentially developable brownfields throughout New England, and community interviews and attendance at public meetings regarding plans to restore the Mystic River waterfront.
Jonathan Evans, MArch I 2010; Brett Albert, MArch IAP 2010; and Andrew Lantz, MArch I AP 2010, will work at the Beverly School for the Deaf, which has outgrown the existing buildings scattered on its seven-acre campus. The school is now seeking a new, iconic, building to anchor its campus and house its ever-expanding programs. The Fellows will engage in participatory work groups with students and teachers to better understand the user groups, research sensory development and its implementation in design, and produce preliminary designs of the architectural project.
Monica Franklin, MAUD 2009, will intern at the Cape Cod Commission where she will assist in the preparation of the Regional Policy Plan (RPP) and other urban design strategies for Cape Cod. The RPP presents a coherent set of regional planning policies and objectives to guide development throughout Barnstable County and to protect the region’s resources. In addition, Monica will help create a set of urban design strategies for key economic centers on Cape Cod that will include design and infrastructure guidelines for both architecture and development sites, potential zoning overlay districts, and other downtown revitalization tools.
Fellows working in the U.S.
Matthew Jull, MArch I 2008, received funding to support a field expedition last January to Barrow, AK, where he researched the impact of global warming and changing conditions in the arctic climate which impact the economic/environmental conditions of the native people.
Leah Rominger, MLA I 2010, received funding for a 10-week summer internship at the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society where she will participate in the Philadelphia Green program. The landscape design branch of Philadelphia Green relies on landscape architects to plan and design improvements in public parks, community gardens, vacant land, and urban streetscapes. Leah will gain valuable hands-on experience in community-based design practice that restores open space and improves the public landscape, particularly in low to moderate income areas of Philadelphia. During the internship, she will focus on providing design assistance with the Vacant Land Stabilization Program and gain exposure to the City Harvest urban gardening and Green Parks Revitalization projects.
Andrew Bryan, MArch I 2010, was awarded funding to attend the Design Corps’ Summer Design-Build Studio, providing architecture and planning services in New Orleans, LA. Andrew’s project will involve designing public space along a small commercial street to economically revitalize the neighborhood.
Fellows working Internationally
Alda Ly, MArch I 2010, and Marika Shiori Clark, MArch I 2010, received funding to support their travel last January to rural Rwanda to provide the research, design consultation, and documentation for a new network of national hospitals planned in collaboration with Partners in Health and the Ministry of Health of Rwanda.
Mary Lydecker, MLA I 2009, was awarded funding to travel this summer to Ghana where she will volunteer with the International Water Management Institute to research urban water/wastewater management for productive purposes in developing countries. She will create safety guidelines for urban farming that will expand production and potentially serve as an infrastructural system for water management in other urban sectors.
Richard Cinco, MArch I 2010, was awarded funding to travel this summer to the Philippines where he will volunteer with Gawad Kalinga, a nonprofit organization, which constructs housing in poverty stricken areas throughout the Philippines. Richard will work in the Guinsaugon region, where an entire village was destroyed in a mudslide, learning how post-disaster design is manifested in a region lacking financial, material, and manpower resources.
Aron Chang, MArch I 2009; Christine Canabou, MArch I 2009; Simon Bussiere, MLA II 2009; and Quilian Riano, MArch I 2009, were awarded funding to travel this summer to Nicaragua where they will be working with Casas de la Esperanza, a nonprofit organization that constructs housing for families living in informal settlements on the outskirts of Grenada. The Fellows will build sustainable, low-cost housing, using design as a tool for empowering the residents in the community.