The Association for Learning Environments awarded a National Certificate of Excellence to a team of CAD Architecture students from this Career and Technology Center at Frederick Community College. The students designed an expansion of the CTC for their 21st Century Educational Redesign Project.

The CTC has run out of room for new programs and for the increasing number of students. Linganore senior, Erika Jacobs, and her team which includes Austin Lemere and Kevin Farmer from Tuscarora High School set a goal to solve this problem by making the CTC more available to more students. They decided that having three separate buildings would utilize the land more efficiently. These buildings would become The School of Design, The School of Service, and The School of Fabrication.

Jacobs and her team spent about a full year creating their design and developing a professional presentation that met industry standards. They spent the first three months planning and creating sketches of the buildings. The next two months they transferred their designs into computer aided design software. The next four months were dedicated to building an architectural model.

“This was the most tedious and time consuming part of the design process. Yet, it was the most rewarding part because we could see the design start to materialize before our eyes,” said Jacobs.

Their design expanded the space at the CTC and made learning more positive and inclusive by making it more available to students. It also included renewable technologies and other sustainable elements.

Jacobs feels very proud to be a part of this team and to represent her school well. “It represents the amount of hard work and unrelenting effort we put into the project over the last 11 months to expand the potential of the CTC and the students within.” said Jacobs.

Her CTC teacher was also proud of their accomplishment. “To have presented their project to a national audience of professional architects who specialize in the design and development of learning environments, and to have received such high praise for their work, is a unique and remarkable achievement,” said Phil Arnold.

Jacobs and her team are going to Washington, D.C. on November 22nd to present to the Grimm + Parker Architecture firm which are the people who designed Linganore. They will be presenting in front of over 60 architects and employees in other locations. As of right now there are no plans for their project to be built but Jacobs hopes her team inspires them to build a new CTC with their ideas in the future.

The class gives students some college credits but they only transfer to local community colleges. It also helps students go into college feeling more prepared and confident in their skills and work.

Read more in the Frederick News Post.