Learn about Page (now Stantec)'s approach to the Architecture/Design High School Internship program.
High school intern, Kevin, presenting his design project.
Image Credit: Page (now Stantec)
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.
Page (now Stantec) began hosting the high school internship in 2022. After returning in 2024 and testing out techniques, they entered this year’s internship with a revised curriculum and an increase to 2 intern placements.
This summer, the firm hosted 2 interns: Allya Rogers and Kevin Tan, both recent Boston Public School grads and rising first year architecture students at Northeastern. For both interns, their interests in architecture ignited when their high school was redesigned. The school’s design team, HMFH Architects, developed a series of student opportunities to learn about architecture during the school’s construction. From there, they continued to explore their interests, applied to architecture school, and entered the high school internship program.
Each summer, Page centers its internship experience around an overarching design project. In the past, they had limited the scale and program, but with this year’s interns heading to architecture school, they expanded the project’s complexity. Interns were tasked with redesigning the area surrounding Sip Cafe in nearby Post Office Square. They each designed a structure for the park and selected a mix of programs suitable for the park. An additional shade structure, the prompt from previous summers, could also be incorporated into the design or placed across the park. The nearby site allowed interns to visit frequently to understand the site’s patterns, conditions, and programmatic needs.
With the project as a guide, the weekly lessons aim to advance the design project and build interns’ greater architectural knowledge. Over the 6 weeks, interns learn about each architectural phase and how it relates to their own design project. With each new phase of the design process, interns try new skills and layer on complexity. Initially, they learn analog techniques to sketch, diagram, and model. As the weeks progress, facilitators incorporate digital design. Interns then gain familiarity with Illustrator, Miro, and Rhino to visualize their ideas and fabrication techniques like 3d-printing to test their concepts.
The interns’ days are a mix of independent work time, lessons, and meetings. Each day begins and ends with a check-in from the week’s facilitator(s), helping to prep tasks and recap progress. In order to prepare interns for architecture school and lessen the stress that accompanies first year studio, the team emphasized incorporating aspects of the studio into the interns’ office experience. This includes self-guided work time and desk crits with mentors.
Supplementary to the main design project, the Page team also schedules Expert Lectures to connect with professionals in the firm’s Boston office and Boston. During these sessions, interns learn about the variety of disciplines within the firm and how they collaborate.
With a new internship approach and tailoring to interns’ levels, Page immersed the interns into architecture and provided a foundation to prepare for their first semester.
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, Page has a core team, composed of emerging professionals and a principal. Together, they work to schedule the interns’ time leading up to the internship and share roles during the internship. 1-2 facilitators lead each week, delivering lessons and assisting interns with their project tasks. This allows Page to support the internship amidst project work and provide a variety of perspectives with the interns.
High school intern, Allya, presenting her design project.
To best prepare for architecture school, Page framed the internship as a bridge between education and the profession. The team aimed to showcase the profession through cross-office meetings, mentorship, and exposure to the many disciplines within the firm. “I hope that our students get a really good experience and absorb the day-to-day inner workings of the office. That was really useful for me when I went to college just to see the differences between the education side of architecture and then the business side of architecture,” said Esther Tang. Through this, interns developed their professional experience and skills on an accelerated timeline compared to their peers.
To build the interns’ educational foundation, the team emphasized the importance of getting back to basics. Facilitators focused on interns’ understanding design principles and analog skill-building before diving too deep into digital design development. Building the fundamentals now not only brings the studio into the interns’ office experience, but sets them up for success throughout architecture school.
Woven into these lessons were emerging professionals’ own advice, pathways, and experiences from school into the profession. With young designers leading the way, they were uniquely situated to reflect on their own paths and incorporate advice into the internship that they themselves would have found beneficial. Esther shared her own experience having a mentor in high school and how gratifying it is to continue that tradition with students today as they figure out their own career paths. Chris Autera also described the internship as “an injection of energy,” and encouraging “to see this new generation of people coming up into the industry and really, oftentimes very much challenging some things from when [we] were in school, design interests, and the culture overall.” The emerging professionals’ approach to sharing advice, feedback, and providing near-peer support creates a positive atmosphere for high school interns to flourish in.
For Allya, now entering her first year at Northeastern, this was her first professional experience in architecture. Although she was always interested in design, she couldn’t find experiences like the high school internship until her school’s Career Specialist guided her to apply. Interested in both interior design and architecture, Allya gained exposure to a variety of different disciplines at Page, from architecture and engineering, to interiors, graphics, and marketing. During the internship, Allya said, “I want to develop my [design] thinking. I want to think outside the box, [to] use different strategies and learn [from] different projects.” The professional exposure, spatial thinking, and skills developed at Page provide a solid foundation for Allya during her path into architecture school.
For Kevin, now entering his first year at Northeastern, this was his second professional experience in architecture. Having completed his first high school internship last summer with Bergmeyer, he solidified his interest in architecture. Returning to the program this year, he was interested in preparing for college, diving into new software, and learning from a new company. At Page, Kevin was able to merge his interests in architecture and business, learning how a large firm operated across offices and sectors. From his high school internships, Kevin is heading into college equipped with design skills, software know-how, and the guidance of many design professionals he’s got to engage along the way.
As Renee P., Designer, shared “ Imagine being able to help curate anyone's ability to understand their own creativity- creativity that they're gonna take with them through their academic and professional career. If they can start that now, how can we not help guide them?”
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 Page (now Stantec) team, with special thanks to Internship Coordinator, Valerie Towe, Internship Facilitators/Mentors, Chris Autera, Esther Tang, Shauneil Williams; and designers, Franco Iannacito and Renee P. 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].
What are you looking for?