What if YSoA had a high school mentorship program?

The simple question that began this issue was: could we share some of YSoA’s knowledge, resources and space with aspiring design students in local high schools? In early October we ran a pilot- a day of Workshops that Majdi, Rebecca, Ayusha and M. hosted with the youth design team for the underpass park project! It was a joyous and immeasurably hopeful day of collective drawing, model making and scheming. It built on the connections made just shy of a year ago by the Repository of Black Knowledge exhibition team, who worked hard to bring in a class of thirty students for an immersive design day. Together the events got us dreaming- what if YSoA made a commitment to nurturing aspiring architects and designers in New Haven’s public school system?

We think it’s possible- but it won’t happen without collective student action. SO… we want to invite you to get involved. If you are interested in trying to make a mentorship program happen, reach out to us at loudhopes@gmail.com, find us around the school and say hi! It’s not going to be easy, but if we can stomach the emails, the zooms, the inevitable confrontation with the schools shrinking budget, we think we can make something really beautiful happen!