College of Fellows Awards Emerging Professionals Grant to Tampa Bay

Summary: AIA Tampa Bay will receive $2,500 from the Emerging Professional Component Grants program to help establish the chapter’s Tomorrow’s Leaders Program. The initiative, developed by the AIA Tampa Bay Associate Committee and Emerging Tampa Bay Architects (ETBA), is a year-long professional development program to expose emerging professionals to the business side of design while they acquire firsthand knowledge of construction processes. The program is funded by the AIA College of Fellows and cosponsored by the Young Architects Forum and the National Associates Committee.

Tampa Bay’s interactive program consists of 12 half-day workshops, seminars, and discussions groups led by industry leaders. The curriculum is divided into two types:

Professional-practice sessions offer insight into areas of business expertise such as management, finances, multidiscipline collaboration skills, ethics, presentation skills, and marketing. The classes include “Intro to Liability and Contracts,” “Financial Side of Design,” and “Marketing Yourself and Your Services.”

The Making of Architecture workshops expose participants to construction practices, basic building practices, and the importance of craft. Classes have already included “hand-on concrete,” with future workshops on topics such as steel and welding, introductions to CNC routers, and construction and site visits.

The workshops expose participants to construction practices, basic building practices, and the
importance of craft

Importantly, the applicants note, the Tomorrow’s Leaders Program allows participants to be prepared better for the business context of professional practice and have more working construction knowledge, a boon for the profession and the community.

Audience and participation
Applicants Kim Headland, Assoc. AIA, AIA Tampa Bay associate director; Phillip Crosby, Assoc. AIA, ETBA founding member; and Dawn Mages, AIA Tampa Bay executive director, note that the component covers seven counties, with about 100 associate members, a member category that is steadily increased in this area by 184 percent over the past five years. In addition, they report, there are more than 520 AIA Tampa Bay members, many of whom have only recently become licensed.

The jury appreciated the flexibility of the Tomorrow’s Leaders Program and how it reaches out to this many members throughout the year during the course of 12 sessions. The applicants anticipate that 15-25 emerging professionals (those licensed for 10 years or fewer), interns, and design professionals from the area will participate in program session. The Tomorrow’s Leaders Program has the reciprocal benefit of giving local leaders in both the public and private sector the opportunity to participate by sharing their knowledge and expertise, also creating occasions for young leaders to make connections with experienced practitioners and community leaders.