Learn about HMFH's approach to the Architecture/Design High School Internship program.
High school interns, Damonic, Lisbeth, and Ryan, on a site visit.
Image Credit: HMFH Architects
Each year, the Architecture/Design High School Internship invites firms to host high school interns for a 6-week architecture experience. High school interns, Boston Public School (BPS) students (Grades 10-12), are immersed into the fundamentals of architecture, the design process, and their first professional experience. For the program’s duration each July-August, firms host the interns in the office 3-4 days per week with all interns gathering on Fridays with the BSA. All firms are supported by program partners, the Boston Society for Architecture (BSA) and the Boston Private Industry Council (PIC), who aim to provide early career pathways for local youth. This year's program is supported by the AIA College of Fellows.
During this summer’s internship, the BSA stopped by host firms to hear from interns about their experience and connect with design professionals involved in the internship. We’ll be chronicling lessons from the visits through our Firm Profile series and encourage you to follow along.
HMFH Architects began in 2018 as an early supporter of the high school internship program, hosting 2 interns each summer since. After returning from a 1-year hiatus for their office renovation, they returned with a renewed purpose, plan, and increased investment in the interns.
This summer, the firm hosted 3 interns: Damonic Foster, rising freshman at UMass Amherst, Lisbeth Garmendia, rising Chelsea High School senior, and Ryan Houston, rising Boston Public Schools senior. Although interns for the program are typically hired through the Boston Private Industry Council (PIC) from Boston Public Schools, HMFH wanted to continue their work with students in Chelsea Public Schools by opening up a new intern placement.
As a firm working in K-12 Education, participating in the high school internship and its feeder program, Architecture/Design Thinking Week, is an extension of their commitments to serving local students. These efforts are also part of the firm’s internal initiative, their Racial Equity and Diversity (RED) committee, which aims to share architecture with students and diversify the profession.
Heading into this year, HMFH restructured their internship program, from the content shared with interns to how staff are involved. Learning from past intern feedback and other firm models, they developed a new curriculum that can be utilized each summer.
The interns’ weeks structure around a mix of workshops, meetings, and independent work time. Tying each week together is an independent design project. The project tasked interns with designing a youth center in a vacant site across from HMFH’s office. Due to its proximity, interns could regularly study the site’s patterns and visit as their designs progressed. HMFH’s revisions, including a smaller scale, nearby site, and increased program parameters, made the project more managable for the 6 week timeframe. Through the project, interns work through the design process, learning skills such as site analysis, sketching, and model-making. At summer’s end, their skills are displayed through new portfolio pieces.
Supplementary to facilitated lessons and project work, interns have the opportunity to connect each week with new faces in the office. HMFH schedules meetings with designers at various levels of their career, as well as staff in marketing, graphics, and accounting. This not only encourages interns to feel welcome in the office, but provides essential career exposure needed at this age. For interns in this program, the connections and information available to them and their interests helps make informed decisions about their paths forward.
Similar to other host firms, the interns spend 4-days per week (Monday-Thursday) in the office. All interns spend Fridays off-site with BSA K-12 for their Summer Fridays series.
To plan and coordinate the internship, HMFH has a core team, composed of a few emerging professionals and an administrator. While the designers spend time developing lessons and projects, the administrator handles scheduling the interns’ time and coordinating with staff.
With a revised internship approach, the core team now shares the curriculum and schedule with the office in the spring. This allows other professionals to know what interns are working on week-to-week and encourages them to be a part of the program. Designers can sign up to mentor, facilitate workshops, or assist with project check-ins. All involved shared how pivotal the new team efforts were to balancing workloads, building enthusiasm in the office, and getting the interns more acquainted in the office.
Building an engaged cohort of emerging professionals around the internship has provided an additional vehicle for HMFH designers to grow and lead early in their careers. By developing curriculum, facilitating workshops, and guiding the interns’ experience, designers strengthen skills that can support their project work long term. The team shared the importance of their own growth through the program and its role in their career growth. From building confidence in public speaking, communicating complex ideas in an approachable way, and connecting regularly with the public, they exercise vital skills needed for their role in K-12 education projects.
For the firm, the high school internship also strengthens their approach to K-12 and is an ongoing method to make architecture more accessible to the broader public. “What we're trying to do, it's meshed with our values and our mission. [This] helps firms like us to rethink how their work, their operations, and their [approach to] architecture affects the greater community that they're in,” said Soha Mohammed-Eltaher. By engaging high school interns each year, HMFH deepens its investment in their student audiences and the future of the profession.
For Damonic, now entering his freshman year at UMass Amherst, he was looking for an opportunity to fully understand his own interests and career path. He first joined the Boston High School Design Challenge hosted at the BSA this spring and jumped at another chance to explore his interests. During the internship, he focused on strengthening his skills, channeling his creativity, and developing pieces for his portfolio. Damonic shared, “With college right around the corner, this is going to help me with [my portfolio] and solidifies my want for this career path.”
For Lisbeth, now a senior at CPS, she was recommended architecture as a career path to use her creativity. After meeting HMFH at her school’s career fair, she researched architecture and enjoyed the multi-faceted nature of the profession. Sharing about her design process, Lisbeth shared, “I enjoy how intricate the work is. It reminds me of a puzzle and it drew me right in. It's allowing me to think outside of the box and find more solutions. There's so many possible solutions, but you have to narrow it down. It's taught me patience [and] to be free in a way- exploring your designs, your ideas, and seeing it come to life.” Impacted by this summer’s experience, she plans to pursue design in the future.
For Ryan, now a senior at BPS, he had previously had 1 PIC internship in another sector, but was seeking his first in-office experience and one related to his interests. Ryan shared that he was initially drawn to the internship as it was a way to make his ideas into something tangible, but that his biggest takeaway was how much architecture can impact people. “In architecture, you design things that will [be] built; things that can help people as well, which is big for me personally. When [you] do things that will end up helping people in life, it makes you feel good,” he shared. The internship began as a way for him to get professional exposure before college, but in turn, Ryan discovered many life lessons through the design process. He shared that his time at HMFH had taught him to zoom out to see the bigger picture, understand how something could work before focusing on the details- in work and in life.
HMFH’s renewed approach to the internship not only provided opportunities for 3 new students this year, but the space for them to express their interests, gain new skills, and be equipped for their paths ahead.
This program is made possible by a network of collaborators at each firm, working to plan and facilitate the high school intern’s experience. Thank you to the HMFH team, with special thanks to Internship Coordinator, Mirtha Suero, and Internship Facilitators/Mentors, Aarjith Janardhan, Hannah Keith, Soha Mohammed-Eltaher, Jake Picariello, and Nallely Salazar. Thank you also to the AIA College of Fellows for their support of the 2025 Architecture/Design High School Internship program.
With a significant gap between interested applicants (400+ across AEC) and current architecture placements (15), we are seeking additional firms to get involved for the 2026 high school internship. Not only will new participating firms have the support of the BSA and PIC, but a network of current host firms who are available to share insights, tools/resources, and more.
We are currently seeking firms to sign on to host for the 2026 season. To learn more and to get involved, please email Taylor Johnson (BSA), [email protected].
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