The Architects Foundation—in partnership with Giving Moore, a foundation of paint manufacturer Benjamin Moore & Co.—announced three additional recipients of the 2017 Diversity Advancement Scholarship last week.
The new winners are Tiffany Chang, a high school senior from Clyde Hill, Wash., who has participated in the ACE Mentor Program with mentors from Kirkland, Wash.–based Freiheit & Ho Architects and McLean, Va.–based MG2; Sudan-born and Northern Virginia–raised Omer Gorashi, who is “passionate about social justice and global affairs, which has driven him to research housing for refugees” according to the release; and Louis Suarez, a first-year architecture student at Carnegie Mellon University whose work “reflects a sensibility to highly crafted images that use both analogue and digital techniques to create moving experiential spaces,” according to the judges.
Omer Gorashi
This award “provides assistance to individuals from a minority race or ethnicity pursuing a professional degree in architecture recognized by the National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB),” according to AIA’s press release. Founded in 1969, this scholarship program (originally called the Ford Foundation Scholarship) awards students $4,000 for the 2018–19 academic year, and $4,000 more per subsequent year of their undergraduate studies for up to five years. The program will likely double in size during the 2018–19 scholastic year follow a second $1 million donation to the Diversity Advancement Scholarship from the AIA in 2016.
Since the inaugural Diversity Advancement Scholarships were awarded in 1970, more than 2,300 architecture students have been recognized. Eligible applicants must be a member of a minority race or ethnicity, have a GPA of 3.0 or higher, be a U.S. citizen, and be a rising first- or second-year student at an NAAB-accredited program.
