Access, Wellbeing, and Equity

Mahsa Adib, Ph.D. Candidate
Architecture with a focus on Landscape Architecture

Ankita Karmakar, Ph.D. Student
Architecture with a focus on Landscape Architecture

Proposal: This project examines social dynamics between students, faculty, and staff in the Stuckeman School community. Microaggressions and other daily hurdles can affect mental health and academic progress. Issues can range from unequal access to resources, inadequate academic guidance, limited faculty-student interactions, and limited professional development opportunities, not to mention the inherent burdens with teaching and learning.We aim to lay the groundwork for understanding key challenges within the work and research environment, enabling future fellows to conduct case studies and gradually develop best-practice solutions. To accomplish this, we will identify concerns through surveys and interactive activities. Adib and Karmakar will then propose frameworks for the school, outlining strategies adopted to address possible concerns in subsequent years.

Jaylaan Pough
Undergraduate | Landscape Architecture

Proposal: The goal of this project is to enhance wellbeing within the Stuckeman School through food and social events in collaboration with Penn State’s chapter of the National Association of Minority Landscape Architecture (NAMLA). NAMLA’s main objective is “to create an inclusive environment for upcoming designers and creatives without judgment, ridicule, prejudice, or hate” whilst fostering a supportive community and environment for Stuckeman students. With a space for marginalized groups – including members, prospective members, and even non-affiliated students – this project will work to accommodate and illuminate the range of social and cultural backgrounds of members and Stuckeman students.

NAMLA will provide diverse and healthy snacks during organization meetings and school-wide events reflecting our population and seasonal availability. Events will include monthly movie/ television binges, open to all and stacked with various foods; monthly snack service stands/ tables in the Stuckeman Family Building lobby; and other programs. This project is a unique opportunity to highlight different cultural aspects represented in the school. and functions as a symbol of NAMLA’s dedication towards creating a healthier and more inclusive Stuckeman Community.

No Fellows named during the 2023–24 academic year.

Sana Ahrar
Ph.D. Student | Architecture

Ali Ghazvinian
Ph.D. Candidate | Architecture

Proposal: The joint-proposal aims to provide a platform for social interactions and dialogue with a focus on creating community among the international graduate community in the Stuckeman School. Interactions among different cohorts will open mentorship opportunities and create networks. The students from older cohorts can help younger cohorts thrive in the graduate programs and help students adapt to the challenges of living in a new environment. It also gives the experience of mentoring to the older cohorts to practice working as senior members of different groups. Moreover, the feedback from the graduate community and the hands-on, collaborative effort will be an extension of the mentorship program within the graduate programs. It will also create a sense of community between all cohorts from all graduate programs.

Cathy Braasch
Assistant Teaching Professor | Architecture

Marc Miller
Assistant Professor | Landscape Architecture

Proposal: To create a scaffold to support and retain students of color through three programs. They are:

• Continue the monthly events, coordinated with the Penn State chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architecture Students (NOMAS).
• Create events to engage allies through faculty/staff development workshops.
• Build a more inclusive student community through collaborative design workshops.

These workshops will (1) create a more inclusive and welcoming community among all Stuckeman School students and (2) teach collaborative design strategies to improve peer-to-peer engagement in the classroom, implementing new research, and cultivating a playful, social environment.

Visit the Sharemaking website

Yang Deng
Ph.D. Candidate | Art Education

Rui Wang
Ph.D. Student | Architecture with a focus in Landscape Architecture

Proposal: To bring international students within the Stuckeman School together and increase their sense of community and visibility within the community and the University.

Through the project, we want to understand: 1) Is the Stuckeman School creating an inclusive learning environment for international students, and 2) What can the teaching community do to increase international students’ sense of engagement further and help them succeed in the School? Our project aims to create an environment for international students to feel safe, comfortable, and empowered to discuss diversity and inclusion and share their stories.

Heather Ligler
Assistant Teaching Professor | Architecture

Proposal: “Voices in Design Computing” is a podcast series produced by students from the Stuckeman School. The series emphasizes dialogue as a medium for unpacking interpretations of design computing across disciplines and aims to foreground an inclusive cross section of computational designers to represent and attract more diversity in the field. Students will prepare, host, and produce six interviews during the summer 2021 semester so that they can be released during the fall 2021 and spring 2022 semesters to conclude the fellowship year.

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Kiarat Eduardo Vidal Rodriguez

B.S. Student | Italian Studies

Proposal: To bring speakers from native communities (Native American, Mexican, and those from potentially further and more “hidden” communities) to talk about the traditions and architecture of their society. This could possibly be an elder or someone who knows the history and reasoning of their people and customs to explain, not in an architectural or institutional way, but almost a familiar or casual acquisition of knowledge.

This will create a more present connection to the humanitarian aspect of architecture and remove the intricacy or abstract idea of the vernacular.