We Are Girls: Encouraging Future Architects

Page was a sponsor of the recent We Are Girls Conference, an annual event produced by Girls Empowerment Network that has attracted support from celebrities like Emma Roberts. The Saturday event is held across multiple cities in Texas to benefit girls in grades 3-8 and is facilitated by the adults who care about them. Pagers created a dedicated hands-on workshop called This is City Dreamscapes to make the girls aware of careers in architecture.

The theme ties in with the firm's efforts to promote STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math) in its PreK-12 projects and volunteer activities. Page facilitators helped teams of participants understand how buildings and cities are designed by having each one choose an inspirational building prototype from a set of flash cards. This served as guidance for their design and construction of an original interpretation using wood blocks, building materials samples and art media. 

Each team member selected a role as manager, designer, builder, landscape architect, and engineer from another stack of flash cards. The cards had a brief description of each role to help educate and guide the team’s decisions during the activity. The Page workshop concluded by combining all the structures together to form a mini- city. Each team then presented their creative considerations and thoughts on their design and its place in the mini-city. 

The workshop objectives supported the conference goals of empowering young girls to consider unique career options and learning the power of teamwork. Girls who participated in the Page activity also learned how communities are built, how the use of recycled materials supports green building practices and to think creatively.

The volunteer Page team at the conference was made up of practicing women architects from Page and they were joined by a prospective interior architecture student at the University of Houston. Other Page employees supported preparation efforts in advance of the conference. Thanks to all Pagers who worked to make this year’s We Are Girls Conference a success!