I joined AIAS in my first year, our chapter was
pretty small at the time. I was encouraged to join
by my grand mentor, who was the current Vice
President of the chapter. I saw the potential of the
AIAS nationally but saw our chapter was lacking
a lot of necessary infrastructure, groundwork, and
really the passion in general. I saw I could really
fill that void.
So, over the course of my time at Carnegie
Mellon University, I got really involved in my
local chapter. I started out being secretary of our
chapter during the spring of my second year in
college and continued in that position the next
year. Then, I became our chapter President the
following year. We were actually on a calendar
year schedule, so our terms were off from
National AIAS, and I saw this was something that
was putting our chapter at a disadvantage. So, I
served as President for a year and a half when
we transitioned from the calendar year to the
academic year.
That brings us to 2016. At this point, I was
entering into the fifth year of my Bachelors of
Architecture Program. I ran for Northeast Quad
Director at Forum-Boston in the winter of 2016.
To give you an idea of the AIAS Government, we
have four-quadrant directors that represent each
of the quadrants of our primary domain in the
US and Canada. They are made up of the West,
South, Midwest, and Northeast.
I
ran and won the Northeast Quad Director
position that winter, and I started serving in July
of 2017, until this past July. This past New Years,
I ran to be National President because I wasn’t
done serving the organization and I really want to
do more for the students. I want to use my voice
for more. I’m a very outspoken individual and I
have a lot of opinions. Sometimes I feel that
people are a little shy and they don’t step up
when they need to. I’m using this position to do
that.
M.D.M.: What made you interested in
architecture and design?
A.R.: I really enjoyed playing The Sims and with
LEGO’s as a kid. Really anything that was out of
the box. Ever since I was little, my parents
noticed I asked a lot of questions, and I’ve
wanted to challenge things around me. I think
that’s the root of the interest I have in design and
architecture. It’s really rooted in problem-solving,
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