In this interactive workshop, students, employers, and other participants will take part in career exploration activities and talk about their experiences, best practices, and lessons learned through years of developing internship models.
You'll discuss the essential principles of hosting high schoolers in design firms, review examples of successful projects, and brainstorm new models that expand upon these ideas. You'll also create action plans for proposing career exploration programs in your own practices and learn to make the case for them to firm leadership.
Finally, panelists will share lessons from their 2025 Architecture Week engagements and begin making plans for ArchWeek2026.
Learning Objectives
- Learn the basics of K-12 outreach, how to begin programs targeted to students in your AIA chapters, and the specifics of launching a high school internship program.
- Outline the connection between increased career awareness among high school students and the development of a robust, diverse talent pipeline in architectural education and practice.
- Discover how to align firm and/or chapter needs with efforts to inspire and support future design professionals by building upon existing models to create new programs tailored to attendees’ practice and location.
- Develop an action plan for proposing a high school engagement program within your own practice.