Fourteen KSC students had an elevated winter break, travelling with the college’s chapter of the American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS) to Denver for the national organization’s annual forum.
The forum is a design and career development conference that gives AIAS members the chance to “grow together and develop their voices, ideas, and actions for the future,” according to the AIAS website.
AIAS members were in the city for five days, from Jan. 6 to Jan.11. During that time, the students had the opportunity to hear from leading voices in architecture as well as to network with members of other chapters.
“There [were] some keynotes that would speak, like some higher-up people talking about their experience and what they got from architecture,” said senior and AIAS President Justin Nicolas. “There were some firms, there’s all the other schools, like from Penn State and New York and all those schools, and we connected with them, talked to them about what our organization does and shared ideas between one another.”
Nicolas said one of the other core pieces of the forum was voting for the 2026-2027 AIAS Board of Directors. The AIAS website describes the board as a “student-led, volunteer-driven leadership body that guides the organization’s mission, programs, and advocacy efforts throughout the year.”
Sophomore and AIAS Event Coordinator Nick Terranova also attended the Denver trip and described it as a cool experience.
“We’re kind of in our own little pocket up in Keene, and so when you go somewhere and you see hundreds of students that are involved in the same thing as you, it’s interesting to be like, ‘Whoa, this is a much bigger thing than it can seem,’” Terranova said.
Terranova said the group was able to explore what Denver had to offer and take in the design of the city from an architectural perspective.
“It was cool to see abstract stuff like that while you still have a lot of the older brick kind of stuff that’s been around for years,” Terranova said. “And then again, because it’s a bigger city, they have the money, they’ll take chances and build some huge glass buildings.”
As for the conference itself, Terranova expressed his appreciation for the keynote speakers who presented at the forum.
“Some of them were wicked interesting,” Terranova said. “They talked for an hour and I was hanging on every word because it’s just like, ‘Whoa, that’s relevant to what I want to do, that’s new information that I’ve never heard before, and, yeah, they’re just a good speaker.”
Terranova said he took the chance to network with fellow AIAS members.
“The last night [of the forum], they had an event, like a ball, and I talked to people from Reno, from Tulane, from Roger Williams, from Denver,” Terranova said. “It was all different corners of the country, and it was cool to be like, ‘Hey, we all have this one thing that ties us together.’”
AIAS meets Tuesdays at 6:30 in TDS 201. Those interested in keeping up with the organization can follow @aiaskeenestate on Instagram.
Charlotte King can be contacted at
cking@kscequinox.com
