FORT WORTH, TX – It’s summer vacation – time to relax, lay by the pool, hang out with friends, and most importantly, leave the books behind. This is the life of a typical high school student from the months of June to August. But, these six students are anything but typical.
 This June, six high school students gave up a portion of their summer vacation and joined Huckabee, a local architecture firm, as part of their annual summer internship program known as the Next Generation Design Institute. The program is designed to give students with an interest in an architecture or engineering career a chance to see what it is like to work in a professional firm, meet with clients, develop space programs and designs and work together in a team. They were also given the opportunity to see what it is like to be a college student majoring in architecture.
Joining Huckabee this year were:
- Cody Connell, (pictured above) Mansfield ISD
- Sydney Cruz, Mansfield ISD
- Kelsey Krueger, Keller ISD
- Morgan Gossett, Cleburne ISD
- Olympia Ornelas, Crowley ISD
- Cesar Ortiz, Crowley ISD
The student interns had workstations set up in Huckabee’s production department where they lived and worked for 10 days. They were assigned a project to complete in teams, and at the end, presented them to a panel of judges, their families and friends and the Huckabee team. During their time at Huckabee, the students visited a construction site, met with executives, learned about the business of architecture and traveled to Texas Tech University to work in the architectural studios, develop their presentation vignette and build models of their projects.
This year, Huckabee teamed up with the Gladney Center for Adoption in Fort Worth for the students’ project which challenged them to create a warm, welcoming environment where families are formed: a Family Services Center. This facility will house special spaces that will become imprinted and remembered as a place where a family was born. Spaces include agency staff offices, placement rooms and home-like hotel rooms for families awaiting the placement of a child. The space also includes a supporting great room and kitchen area and outdoor spaces as well.
The final presentations were held at Gladney in Maybee Hall on June 25. At the culmination of this event, they were each awarded scholarships for their participation. Huckabee is excited to announce that students were awarded $8,150 in scholarships. Cody Connell graduated from Timberview High School in the Spring and will be attending the University of Texas at Arlington majoring in architecture. He was awarded a $1,200 scholarship for his participation in the program. Sydney Cruz will be a Senior at Timberview High School in the Fall. She was a member of the winning team and was awarded a $1,500 scholarship. Since the NGDI program began six years ago, the firm has been able to award over $33,000 to student participants.
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