From Don Tomasi, AIARE Scholarship Fund Chair:
I want to take this opportunity to bring everyone up to speed on one of our chapter’s most important endeavors. Since its founding in 2005, our AIARE Scholarship Fund has awarded a total of $24,800 to 18 architecture students from throughout our chapter area, from Petaluma to Arcata. In addition to myself, current members of our Scholarship Committee are Aaron Jobson, Jaime Stich, Drew Weigl and Sara Woodfield. Our fund’s endowment currently stands at about $45,000. This year we are making three $1,000 awards. Our awardees are Zoe Frothinger, Ismael Carreno Ortiz, and Ireland Sommer.
Zoe will be a Junior at UC Berkeley next year, and this will be the third year we’ve been able to support her. She became interested in architecture through high school STEM classes, which included CADD classes and experience with rendering. Recently she worked part-time in an architectural firm and continues to earn money with freelance photography.
Ismael plans to attend Cal Poly Pomona as a Freshman next year as a first-generation student. He is a graduate of Casa Grande High School and actively volunteers with various local non-profit organizations.
At the time of her application, Ireland was not sure which college she would be attending this Fall. She is a graduate of Arcata High School and was a participant in UC Berkeley’s EmbARC Summer Design Academy last year.
To continue to be able to make meaningful awards to future scholarship applicants it is imperative that we continue to grow our endowment. The AIARE Scholarship Committee will be announcing a fundraising drive later this year.
In closing, I wish to thank everyone who has contributed to the Fund over the years. Being able to support local architecture students is rewarding and has made an important difference to many students over the years who rely on such scholarships to fund their education.
Don Tomasi
