Newsletter of the College of Architecture at Texas A&M University
High school-age students are getting a taste of academic life at Texas A&M's College of Architecture, learning about Aggieland and having lots of fun along the way at the college's annual weeklong Camp ARCH, which concludes July 17.
The 55 students, who hail mostly from Texas, but some from as far away as Wilmington, Del., Baton Rouge, La., and Cincinnati, Ohio, worked in one of two academic tracks, design or visualization.
"We left it up to the students to select and vote what their main design project would be, and the winning choice was a sustainable, remote community on an ocean island," said Jennifer Olson, an architect at The Arkitex Studio in Bryan. "The students developed places to live, work and play on the island."
She led the design studio with Jorge Vanegas, dean of the College of Architecture, and Dyutima Jha, who earned a Master of Architecture degree from the college in May 2010 and is using the Camp ARCH studio to explore a possible career in teaching.
"I wanted to see if teaching is the right thing for me and this is the perfect place to find out," she said.
Olson said it the students, obviously paying attention to today's news, were already familiar with specifics regarding sustainable design and construction and the importance of environmental stewardship.
"They raised the issue before we even talked about it," said Vanegas.
Students in the visualization track are creating a video they'll premiere to an audience including their parents on July 17, the final day of Camp ARCH.
"They chose to create a story and shoot it using a stop-motion technique," said Natalie Pittman, a Master of Science in Visualization Sciences student, who is leading the track.
The students, she said, will use Adobe Premiere and After Effects computer applications to edit the video.
Students also practiced Aggie yells, went swimming at the Rec Center, sharpened their drawing skills in an art class and took archery lessons, just a few among the camp's many activities.
Visit the Camp ARCH home page at http://www.arch.tamu.edu/content
- Posted:July 14, 2010 -
Contact: Phillip Rollfing, prollfing@archone.tamu.edu or 979.458.0442.
