August 24, 2007

Father Ryan student discovers career path through mentoring program

Ned Andrew Solomon, Tennessee Register

Thanks to a unique educational initiative, Father Ryan High School junior, Michael Wasyliw, has a pretty good idea of where his life is going.

He’s been fortunate enough to take advantage of the ACE Mentoring Program, which helps high school youth explore careers in architecture, construction and engineering. The mentors are professionals from leading design and construction firms who volunteer their time to motivate students toward careers in the field, and provide college scholarships for the most promising participants.

Wasyliw began exploring ACE in his freshman year. “I’ve always liked playing with Legos and building things,” said Wasyliw. “My mom was talking to one of her friends who is an architect, and he told me about this high school program. One day during announcements at Father Ryan I heard there was a meeting for ACE at the library, so I just showed up.”

Typically the program targets seniors who have a clearer idea of their interests or goals. They do make exceptions, like in Wasyliw’s case, when a student is very enthusiastic and appears to have an exceptional gift for the subject matter.

Mentors and students meet for two hours every other week beginning in late September and ending in late April. During those meetings, students visit the different offices and job sites of the mentors in their group.

“The meeting location changes, and at each meeting a mentor is assigned to do the lesson plan, which follows a curriculum throughout the year,” explained Chris Corby, owner of School Facility Management LLC, and an ACE mentor who has provided oversight for the ACE program at Father Ryan for the past three years.

“Although the meeting shifts from the owner’s office to the contractor’s, or the engineer’s or a job site, the bulk of the meetings are led by the architect,” Corby said. “In the construction process, the architect is the one that’s really driving the train.”

The program culminates with a large banquet in May, where students give presentations to a large audience of parents, mentors and representatives from the companies that have sponsored the program. At last year’s banquet, former Tennessee Titan, Eddie George, a landscape architect himself, provided the keynote speech.

The Nashville chapter of ACE gets mentors and financial support from a long list of diverse entities. Besides Corby’s firm, the roster includes the Adventure Science Center, BACAR Constructors, Earl Swensson Associates, Gresham Smith and Partners, HG Hill Realty, Hospital Corporation of America, JE Crain & Sons, RC Mathews, the State of Tennessee, Tennessee Board of Regents The Parent Company, Inc. and Vanderbilt University Medical Campus Planning.

There are eight ACE mentoring groups in Nashville, and each is assigned several mentors from each discipline and students from one or two schools. The Father Ryan participants are in a group with peers from the University School of Nashville.

Throughout the year, the individual groups of students work on a team project, which they’ve had some input in selecting. Every student takes on a different role in the project, problem-solving through the eyes of the architect, the contractor, the engineer or the owner of a building.

“I think it’s terrific, because the students get a free addition to their curriculum,” said Corby. “It’s also a great opportunity for a student to build his portfolio. Since ACE is nationally recognized, a student entering a college program in this field would be so much farther ahead than the rest of them.”

In a few cases, the students may find themselves ahead financially too. For each of the eight groups, two students are selected to receive a $2,000 scholarship to the school of their choice, as long as they pursue a degree in one of the disciplines. Wasyliw picked up one of these at the end of his first year with the program.

In the previous two years, about a dozen Father Ryan students participated, with an equal amount from University School. Wasyliw was the only Ryan student last year to attend the full series of meetings. “Which was really disappointing,” said Corby, a Father Ryan graduate. “I’m going to work really hard this year to make sure we have a bigger group that stays with it. I intend to work with some of the teachers, in art or computer, to see if we can get some class credit for all the work the students are doing in the program. The struggle with this, as with any group, is that there is such a demand on student time.”

For Wasyliw, it was worth it to work around his busy extracurricular athletics schedule. “It’s fun, and you get exposed to so many aspects of the trade,” said Wasyliw. “It’s the only place I know of where you have the opportunity to go to an architect’s office one week, an engineer’s office three weeks later, and on-site tours with contractors. All those different experiences make it very worthwhile.”

Now in his third year with ACE, Wasyliw has developed considerable skill in the area of 3D modeling, the art of creating on a computer the designs architects used to render painstakingly on paper, so a project can be visualized from all directions.

“Michael has become our resident expert on this,” said Corby. “In our group, when we’re breaking off into our different roles, Michael is designing our project in three dimensions and modeling it for us. It’s pretty awesome.”

The young designer is fairly certain he will continue to explore architecture beyond the ACE program and his Father Ryan graduation. He had a taste of the discipline at the college level last summer, when he entered an essay contest and won a scholarship to attend a week-long session at Mississippi State University. Again, Wasyliw was the youngest student there, since the program is primarily geared toward high school seniors and incoming Mississippi State students.

“It was like a crash course in the first year of architecture,” said Wasyliw. “We had sketch workshops and group projects, like designing a sitting device out of cardboard, twine and Elmer’s Glue. Our final project was to design a studio for a sculptor, painter or dancer that would actually fit into one of the existing lots in the Cotton District.”

Wasyliw’s parents have been very supportive of his ACE activities, encouraging him to prioritize it over his other after school commitments.

“My dad is in banking,” said Wasyliw. “He said, ‘I wish when I was your age they had something like that, just to get experience in an area before you commit to college.’”

In fact, Wasyliw is seeking even more pre-college experiences in the design field. He’s carefully choosing his remaining high school courses to augment his pursuit, such as art and 3D Design, and looking into the possibility of a dual enrollment at Watkins College of Art & Design, and internship opportunities at area architectural firms. 

Preparing for last year’s end-of-program presentation, Wasyliw was able to reflect more on what he had accomplished through the ACE program. “We really learned about the design process ourselves, instead of the architects and engineers just spoon-feeding us or telling us what to do,” said Wasyliw. “We did it on our own, with their guidance.”

And perhaps the best lesson came from the students’ collaboration with the professionals, as well as their peers. “You have to have great communication and people skills in this business,” said Wasyliw. “The architects work hand-in-hand with the owner, and the engineers have to work closely with the contractors. It’s kinda cool how everything meshes together. We learned how building relationships in business really helps.”

Father Ryan High School junior Michael Wasyliw accepts a scholarship to attend architecture camp at Mississippi State University during the Architects, Contractors and Engineers Mentoring Program awards banquet last spring from board member Alan Hayes. Wasyliw has participated in the ACE Mentoring Program, which helps high school students explore careers in architecture, construction and engineering, since he was a freshman.