My goal is to increase WCAPT membership and engagement of students and emerging professionals. Based on my experience as the Student Outreach Chair, we can improve student participation with personal outreach to universities across California, Arizona, and Nevada. Our efforts should include connecting with professors and students in various preservation-related majors, including graduate and undergraduate programs at universities, state colleges, and community colleges. WCAPT can provide tailored presentations at college campuses to student groups in architecture, civil engineering, and other related fields to introduce preservation career paths to students and generate interest in WCAPT.

Other professional organizations, such as ASCE, have a strong campus presence due to student competitions like concrete canoe. However, APTI also has a student design build competition where students design, construct, and test a model historic bridge. Currently, west coast schools do not compete in the APTI student design build competition, but with proper mentoring and support from WCAPT, we can encourage local schools to compete. The finalists compete at the APTI conference, providing students opportunities to network and learn from design professionals.

The WCAPT student scholarship is currently an underutilized benefit by students. As we improve WCAPT student awareness with personal outreach and connections, this will inevitably increase the number of scholarship applicants and award winners. Scholarship recipients will participate in future WCAPT and APTI events and can spread knowledge from the organization amongst their college peers. The benefits of WCAPT are numerous, and student engagement will improve as they are exposed to the numerous advantages of the organization.

...learn more about Samuel here!