Renaissance Woman by Jasmine

Renaissance Woman by Jasmine - June 2020 Scholarship Essay

I believe that the best way to describe architecture is a quote by Marcel Duchamp, "Architecture is art with plumbing". Architecture is so much more than just brick buildings, it’s a medium of art. To me, architecture is the most powerful medium because buildings are cosmic sculptures that people go into to live, work, shop, and everything in between. Not only do buildings influence the life of humans, but humans also influence them too because these pieces of art hold memories and life inside of them. What makes architecture even more powerful is that it requires math and physics. One may think that those two cannot mix with art, but when they do, the most magical things are created. The ability to combine STEM with art is a complicated skill to master, and I hope that once I master this, I will become a true “Renaissance woman.''
Someone who I consider a Renaissance woman is Neri Oxman. She’s a champion of combining art, design, and STEM and a pioneer of 'bio-architecture', as she uses organisms such as worms to create her work. Something she said in an interview that deeply touched me was, "aim for your work to be displayed in a modern art museum, but also a science & nature magazine". Hearing made me realize that my two passions, art, and STEM, are so much stronger when they’re put together. This showed how amazing my future could be if I work hard, improve my skills, and broaden my creativity, I can create the most magical structures.
As a minority, I believe that it is very important to have diversity in the field of architecture. According to NCARB, in 2019, less than twenty percent of architects identified as racial minorities, and an even smaller percentage of those minorities were women of color like myself. One of my biggest inspirations is Norma Sklarek, a pioneer for Black Women in Architecture. A quote from her that has always resonated with me deeply is, "In architecture, I had absolutely no role model. I'm happy today to be a role model for others that follow." Many women of color may feel intimidated going into a field dominated by white men, the lack of representation for us in the field enforces a stereotype threat that makes it even more challenging for us to succeed. I’ve dealt with this stereotype in my high school engineering classes. The last engineering class I had taken had about thirty students, but only four of us were girls, and we always stuck together. For one of the last projects we had, the teacher made a rule that we had to work in a group with at least two people we had never spoken to before. For the first time ever, the boys wanted me in their group, and I was excited to show them that I could be just like them, but things didn’t go as I imagined. Instead, they disregarded every idea and wanted me to do nothing but record data. After a couple of days, I decided to stop putting up with it and speak for myself. Although they refused to apologize, I was still proud of myself for realizing my self-worth. This inspired the rest of the girls to speak out about the sexism and microaggressions happening in our classroom. Like Norma Sklarek, I was happy to be a role model for others to follow, and this made me realize how much more powerful women could be if we had more role models to follow.
As someone deeply concerned about our environment, I want to use architecture to not only beautify our planet but also save it. According to Architecture2030.org, forty percent of greenhouse gas emissions are caused by architecture. To fix this, in college I plan on researching bio-architecture and sustainability. Research on this topic is needed now more than ever before as we are currently going through the largest wave of urbanization in history, and as it continues to grow, CO2 emissions will only continue. Low-income communities are typically the first to be impacted by climate change, and architects must begin to help them rather than just focus on the wealthy. My goal is to design sustainable, high quality, affordable residential buildings in low-income neighborhoods. The construction of these buildings will emit minimal CO2 as well as eliminate the use of toxic materials.
When I dream of being an architect, I see myself creating marvelous mosques that my Muslims brothers and sisters will worship in, and abstract museums so that people will feel like they’re inside of art while viewing art, cosmic skyscrapers, and sustainable structures that will improve our world. I know that as a Muslim woman of color, I will have to work ten times harder to achieve this, but I will never let those barriers stop me. I hope that once I become the Renaissance woman that I’ve always aspired to be, I can open doors for people just like me. I want to see more young women filling up spaces that have been constantly dominated by white men.