Randy Meyer
AIAS Vice President
In the spring of 2008, Lewis and Clark Community College welcomed a new student club organization. The American Institute of Architecture Students. With only seven starting members, and a lot of perseverance, the AIAS organization has become a group that the members can be proud of. Although most of the original members have since graduated and gone on to four year universities, the group itself has grown. Fall of 2009 saw the group gain national recognition with the main organization based in Washington D.C. With that came a large sense of pride for the members who were involved in making the group large enough to attain that milestone. At that time there were almost 30 members in the group.
After becoming nationally recognized in Washington, the group tried to start a chapter of Freedom by Design. This program is designed to help the local community by allowing students to help people with disabilities gain freedom and mobility in their own homes. The College and Group decided that the AIAS chapter at Lewis and Clark was too small for the program and so the Freedom by Design chapter was not started. After that the group had been looking into other ways of giving back to the community and that is when the group approached Valorie (Val) Harris.
Val, let AIAS know at that time, Lewis and Clark was going to be joining up with Habitat for Humanity to help design and build a home for a disadvantaged family in the local area at some point in the future. Almost eight months later, Val informed AIAS that the College and Habitat for humanity were going to be starting a project, possibly as early as this summer in the Alton area.
Lewis and Clark, Habitat for Humanity, and the AIAS are going to be heavily involved in this project. The AIAS will not be involved in the selection process, but will be involved with the designing and, quite possibly, the building of the home. At this time the screening process has not begun and the actual start date is unknown, but in the near future another family will be getting to move forward on their journey towards the American dream; a house they can call their own.
The Lewis and Clark Community College chapter of the American Institute of Architectural Students, currently consists of students enrolled in the Architecture program, but is open to anyone who has an interest in sketching or has an interest/appreciation of architecture. There are monetary dues of $50 a year to join the group and your membership is valid from September to august of the following year. Included with the dues is a subscription to CRIT, a monthly newsletter from the AIAS main organization and many different discounts. All membership benefits can be seen on the AIAS main web page at www.aias.org.
Anyone that is interested in joining the AIAS, or has any questions about the organizations activities with Habitat for Humanity ,or what is going on with the Habitat for Humanity project, can contact Randy Meyer at rcmeyer@mail.lc.edu
