Six high school students from the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex decided to take a step toward their future and away from the relaxation of summer to attend Next Generation Design Institute, a 10-day internship program held at Huckabee, a Fort Worth architecture firm.

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 including client meetings, developing designs, working in teams and presentation delivery. This year’s program partnered with Habitat for Humanity and challenged the students to create a single-family home using sustainable design strategies.

The students selected for the 2009 NGDI program were Jackson Eudy and Austin Jones from Mansfield ISD, Josh Giles from All Saints’ Episcopal School in Fort Worth, Aaron Whiting and Angela Garcia from Crowley ISD and Taylor Lynn from White Settlement ISD.

Students were placed into teams of two and provided workstations at Huckabee for the 10-day program. The challenge was to create a 1,600 square foot sustainable single-family home that included at least five “green” strategies such as green roofs, daylighting, renewable resources, energy efficient systems or natural ventilation.

Working along side Huckabee staff in the production department, the students learned how to create an effective faux design for Habitat for Humanity. They visited a construction site, met with a landscape architect, learned the business of architecture and met with Huckabee executives.

The students also traveled to Texas Tech University for a two-day visit to the College of Architecture where the students were able to discover life as an architect student, develop final presentation vignettes and build models of their sustainable family home.

Final design presentations were made in front of a panel of judges, friends, family and the Huckabee staff Wednesday, June 25. The judges included Rod Reeves, Facility Coordinator for Denton ISD, Samantha Miller, Senior Director of Development for Trinity Habitat for Humanity and Robert Rodriguez, former NGDI student and current UTA College of Architecture student. Participation and achievement scholarships were awarded to each student totaling $10,800.

Jackson Eudy graduated from Mansfield Legacy High School this Spring and plans to major in architecture at Texas Tech University or the University of Arkansas. Austin Jones will be a Senior at Mansfield Legacy High School this Fall. Jones received an additional $400 scholarship as the recipient of the “Inspiration Award” for outstanding performance and dedication. Both Eudy and Jones were awarded $1,600 scholarships for participation in the program.