Ten Years of Investing in North Texas Students
July 3, 2012
On Friday, June 29, 2012, Huckabee celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Next Generation Design Institute (NGDI) at the newly completed Mansfield ISD Center for the Performing Arts. The evening also marked the final presentations and awards ceremony for the 2012 NGDI program.
Huckabee founded NGDI, originally Huckabee University, in 2003. Since then, NGDI has had over 66 students participate from 16 different school districts and four different private schools. In addition, NGDI has awarded over $77,000 to program participants through the NGDI scholarship fund. Now in its tenth year, NGDI has grown to be Huckabee’s favorite time of year. It is an opportunity for the firm to share what it loves to do and invest in the future of the architecture industry.
The six students who participated in the 2012 program included Alex Bowman from Timberview High School in Mansfield ISD, Julio Cortes and Luis Marin from North Garland High School in Garland ISD, Ashley Landry from Boswell High School in Eagle Mountain-Saginaw ISD, Alyssa Jennings from L.D. Bell High School in HEB ISD and Ki’ara Torrence from Trinity High School also in HEB ISD.
The NGDI program is designed to give high school students with an interest in architecture or engineering an opportunity to see how a professional firm functions. This year, students traveled to the University of Texas at Arlington to also gain exposure to the studio-classroom experience they will receive at the collegiate level.
Students are assigned a project to complete in teams, and at the end, present them to a panel of judges, their families, friends and the Huckabee team. The project for this year’s program had the students collaborating with YMCA Fort Worth to reinvent Camp Carter. Camp Carter is a 350-acre site in northwest Fort Worth that Amon G. Carter, Sr. & Jr. opened in 1948. Currently, Camp Carter hosts day camps, overnight camps, leadership programs for teenagers, and Camp Can-Do – a program specifically designed for blind and visually impaired children. NGDI students were challenged to evaluate the activities and facilities currently in place at Camp Carter in order to create an exciting, new experience for children of the 21st century. The students redesigned the camp’s current site plan and designed a new indoor/outdoor recreational center for the camp. The student’s projects provided Camp Carter a new, inspiring environment for carrying out its mission of youth development, healthy living and social responsibility.
Huckabee continues to be impressed by students that come through the NGDI program and is particularly proud of the NGDI Class of 2012 for their success. Huckabee looks forward to another decade of helping high school students envision a tomorrow in the field of architecture.
