August 2023 Chapter President’s letter

Aug 17

A personal letter from Angela Mazzi, FAIA, FACHA, EDAC about Early Professionals and the profession

This month, we are celebrating a demographic which reflects the future of our chapter. In our industry, there are a lot of terms used to capture the beginning stages of career/newly licensed:

Young Architects Forum (YAF): a program of the American Institute of Architects and the College of Fellows (COF) organized to address issues of particular importance to recently licensed architects, within ten (10) years after licensure (but there is no age limit on this). YAF exists at the national level and includes representatives from each state. Learn more, including more on the annual YAF Summit.

Emerging Professional: This is the official AIA term for professionals who have completed their academic studies up to the point of licensure or up to 10 years after completion of their academic studies. It’s a more targeted group of those in the early stages of their career. AIA has a national Center for Emerging Professionals that you can learn more about.

AIA Ohio and AIA Cincinnati have combined these into one group—Early Professionals. AIA Ohio has an Early Professional (EP) site that includes links to the Annual EP Journal (with some really cool survey data) and a list of EP Friendly firms that you can view here. AIA Ohio is seeking individuals to represent Ohio to the YAF and National Associates Council (NAC) If you might be interested, or have questions, contact AIA Ohio Executive Director Kate Brunswick, before August 31, 2023.

Why am I telling you all this? Because here in Cincinnati, the 40 and below age group is 23% of our membership. Compare that to Emeritus and members over age 60 at 31%. Associate members especially are not getting engaged with our chapter and drop off once the free membership AIA grants them in the first 18 months after graduation expires. We can change that by empowering EPs to leverage the networking and educational resources of AIA. If you are an EP, get engaged! We have a dynamic EP group here in Cincinnati helmed by the indefatigable Darion Ziegler and Brian Oldiges. Just this year, they have hosted social events, tours, and events in support of continuing education, practice issues, and obtaining licensure. Join them the second Monday of each month for a virtual working group meeting (next is September 11), or attend one of their events:

8/26 // ARE Study Session: Project Management
8/30 // Walking Tour: Over-the-Rhine Infill Construction

If you are past the EP career stage, reach out to EPs at your firm or that you know. Connect them to resources and encourage them to attend events. Mentor them. Help them get licensed. Suggest they join national mentorship programs pairing Young Architects (Align) and Associates (Nexus) with Fellows. On a recent Nexus call, I thought it was cool to hear Julia Monk, FAIA, who is based in Hong Kong, state that an architecture education isn’t complete until you get your license. Our mentee is a recent graduate from a non-accredited school but lives in Colorado, where she can get licensed. Julia and I both stressed how valuable this would be for her entire career, a reassurance she greatly appreciated. How many other EPs are looking to have these same conversations right here in Cincinnati? I’m challenging each of you to invite an EP along to one of our upcoming events in the next month (see below).

As I learned while attending the AIA Ohio EP Practice Simulation Lab in July, EPs will be shaping a future of practice that focuses on community enhancement (meaning having a greater-good aspect to the work), multidisciplinary practice, user experience, and addressing pain points, sustainability, and resiliency. This includes working in a fluid manner across multiple locations and convening diverse viewpoints. Let’s work as a chapter across the spectrum of our careers to build connections, learning, and leadership opportunities.

Angela Mazzi, FAIA, FACHA, EDAC
2023 AIA Cincinnati President