Architecture: Building a Strong Foundation
In April Webb’s Architectural Design focus area, scholars can be found creating models of something that, for them, represents home. Whether they are building a model of their house, a conceptual sculpture of a swing, or a recreation of their bedroom, April’s scholars are able to bring their artistic vision to life over the course of their five weeks at GSP in a highly personalized project.
This is April’s first year teaching the course, and her overarching goal for her scholars is to expose them to architecture and help them explore it as a potential career path. She recognizes that “especially when we’re young, there’s these moments where we are kind of just making a decision, like we’re supposed to know what we’re doing for the rest of our life without any real practical experience.”
Because of this, April wants to give her scholars ample opportunities for hands-on experiences involving architecture. She knows that it’s often necessary to get real experience before making life-changing decisions, particularly when the decisions relate to a future job. Architecture “splits the worlds of math and science and art, and if you aren’t interested in investing in all of those parts, then it’s not worth it.”
April’s favorite part of the program is being able to foster an environment where her students are able to work on so many different things at once. The chaos of it all is exciting to her, and she is truly able to embody the idea that we are all scholars at GSP when helping her students and learning new skills with them.
Across the board, her scholars highly recommend her course, particularly for people who are interested in more artistic pursuits or the creative side of architecture. Resoundingly, her scholars did not expect that the course would be formatted in this way. Heidi, one of her scholars, came into the course expecting it to “be a lot more engineering-based.” Another scholar, Zoe, said that the course is “a lot more hands-on than (she) thought it would be.”
While not all scholars in her class intend to pursue architecture as a future career, for Ethan, this course has only furthered his passion. “I’ve always wanted to major in architecture, …and when I first heard that (GSP) had it, I was very excited.” He feels that this course has “given (him) a great foundational understanding for actual architecture courses in college.”
When April’s students were asked to describe the course in one word, there were a number of positive responses. Scholars believe that her course is creative, comforting, unique, and hands-on, and all who were interviewed have enjoyed their time in her class. April can certainly be trusted to build a strong foundation for her scholars’ futures here at GSP.
