Mentorship program helps architecture students build toward the future

By Juliana Tomasoni
Contributing Writer

The future for the city’s landscape and skyline looks bright. And, according to some New Orleans architects, that is thanks to a group of rising architecture students and the dedicated professionals taking time to mentor them.

The ACE (Architecture, Construction, Engineering) Mentor Program of New Orleans hosted its annual graduation ceremony on April 26 at which high school students from the program showcased their model design projects after benefiting from guidance and support from professionals in the industry.

As its name suggests, the ACE Mentor program is designed to introduce high school students to the wide range of career opportunities in the fields of architecture, construction and engineering. Professionals volunteer their time to act as mentors to students as they develop hypothetical projects, visit construction sites and engineering and architecture offices. The program gives students an opportunity to discover and develop new skills and make positive relationships with industry professionals.

“New Orleans has a unique architecture, historic buildings that need to be preserved and we need the future of our industry to be developed and learn from industry leaders,” said Christian Generes, the chair of the ACE board.

This year’s event showcased the students and mentors from four local high schools: De La Salle High School; McDonogh 35 Senior High School; New Orleans Charter Science & Mathematics High School; and Warren Easton Charter High School.

The commencement speaker was Neil Hickok, who has served since 2004 as chief engineer at Boh Brothers, a construction company founded in 1909 by Arthur P. Boh in New Orleans. Hickok, who is a licensed civil engineer in Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, spoke about his career experiences and gave advice to the young students about how they could build toward success.

“The process of learning and discovering are really the secrets. The journey is long, is hard but at the end it is not a race, it is an adventure on self-discovering and it rewards you with knowledge and experience,” Hickok said.

The ceremony, hosted at the New Orleans Downtown Marriott at The Convocation Center in New Orleans, featured the students, mentors and board members of the ACE of New Orleans. In addition to the formal presentation and recognition of each high school, the students who had worked in four teams, presented their design projects on stage. They shared with the audience the materials they used, the time, location, design, construction and cost of the models they had created.

One student from De La Salle High School, Gustavo de Paiva, said the process took a lot of time, team work and learning.

“I had to learn how to use Sketchup, you cannot learn that on your own, you need to learn from somebody else, and the mentors were really helpful with that,” he said. Sketchup is a 3D modeling software, and after finishing high school, Gustavo said he plans to study civil environmental engineering at the University of New Orleans.

Gustavo was also among the ten student recipients of the scholarships awarded by Lauren Gibbs from Gibbs Construction Company. Gustavo’s mother, Nalu Zacarias, described the moment as very special and sensible for the family. Gustavo’s father passed away just months ago.

“He got the feeling for construction and building from his father and today is a tribute for him,” Zacarias said.

This article originally published in the April 30, 2018 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.