Marywood University’s Women in Architecture and Design (WIAD) focuses on promoting female leadership within the field of architecture, primarily focusing on mentorship and networking opportunities.
Victoria Talarico, president of the WIAD, worked hard to bring the program to light along with Vice President Lenae Burkhard and Social Media Coordinator Chloé Perko.
“Originally, the program wasn’t an alive and functioning part of the School of Architecture. There was leadership bouncing back and forth between people, and I know that a lot of people on campus wanted it to be something that was more present, but it just never got to that point,” said Talarico. “So, me, Lenae and our academic advisor, Kim, worked really hard to get it back up and running and from there we went on assembling our team.”
WIAD also had help from the former secretary, Daniel Leonard, and Perko played an important role as well with the social networking aspect.
“In terms of the social network part, we’re trying to give an opportunity to the members for a sense of belonging to our club and also to showcase their work, and establish themselves in a social aspect,” said Perko.
“I would say that the goal of this group is to bring everyone together, to understand the importance of women in architecture,” said Burkhard. “We want to bring networking to all who want to join our club.”
With the political climate right now, along with discussions of diversity and roles in society, another challenge arises to WIAD to face and let others be heard.
“Certain groups like ours are in order to make sure that specific people have a voice in their roles,” said Talarico. “We encourage everyone to come join what we’re doing in our chapter because it is beneficial to everyone, not [just] because it’s beneficial to women, it’s something that everybody’s gonna benefit from.”
WIAD’s focus this semester is to be involved with women in the field specifically by inviting lecturers and mentors to speak on their behalf, and to be more open within the actual field rather than at a university level.
For more information about WIAD, follow them on Instagram.
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