In celebration of National Engineer’s week, we’re shining a light on the ACE Mentor Program, an after-school program that connects high school kids with active professionals in architecture, construction, and engineering and hands-on design experiences. This week, we’ve talked to two of Lund Opsahl’s volunteer mentors in the program, Isaiah Coleman and Mauricio Ayala-Cruz.
These past few weeks, the office has been buzzing with the creativity and energy of the aspiring engineers and architects. Led by Lund Opsahl and our ACE partners, students gathered to learn more about the different disciplines within the industry and the design project they would work on for the rest of the year.
In one session, the group discussed the architectural design process, diving into the development of a “Concept”, and were introduced to their hands-on project for the year— renovating an existing church to a “Library of the Future”. From there, students brainstormed ideas for this “Library of the Future” renovation, taking inspiration from Seattle’s local nature, culture, seasonal colors, and more while also exploring space usage and user experience of the building.
Following this session, the group ventured to the Seattle Public Library next door, where the students explored what went into the design of a library, that in the early 2000’s was a “Library of the Future”. While our architect partners spoke about the concept and aesthetics, and our structural engineer mentors spoke about the steel beams and supports. The tour served as a real-world example of the presentations and discussions from earlier weeks, preparing the students for their project as they thought about what a “Library of the Future” would look like for them.
The future of engineering rests in the minds and creativity of these aspiring engineers, and we feel privileged to have the chance to nurture their ingenuity and creativity within the field of structural engineering through the ACE Mentor Program. Mentorship lies at the heart of our core values, and we believe in the ACE Mentor Program as a platform to guide and ignite inspiration in the future leaders of architecture, construction, and engineering.
Welcome to the future!