For the second year in a row, HERA Project Manager Amy Tongay spoke to the young women of Hawthorn Leadership School for Girls about a career path in architecture.
Using HERA’s hands-on building model, Amy helped the students design STEM laboratories that would be efficient and effective learning spaces. The students were able to use their own laboratories at Hawthorn – designed by HERA – as a guide in how to incorporate flexibility, encourage group learning and promote communication through the architecture.
Amy has more than 20 years of architectural experience on a wide range of teaching and research labs for K-12 and higher education clients, and she has developed a particular expertise in health sciences and simulation spaces. She was HERA’s project manager for the laboratory renovations at Hawthorn.
Under the guise of “you can’t be what you can’t see,” the Hawthorn job fair helps plant seeds of possibilities for the girls’ futures and exposes the students to career fields and job opportunities they may have never considered.
Hawthorn is a college preparatory school with a focus on science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). The school opened in 2015 with 6th and 7th grades, and will add a grade each year until it is fully enrolled in 2020 with 450 girls in 6th through 12th grade. The tuition-free school is open to all girls eligible to attend public school in St. Louis.
Hawthorn is an affiliate of the Young Women’s Leadership Network which supports five high performing all-girls public schools in New York City and 13 affiliate schools around the country. Washington University serves as Hawthorn’s charter sponsor and partners with the school on curriculum and instructional support, tutoring and other areas.