During the summer of 2019, I worked as a design intern at Territory, a design studio focused on youth engagement. I co-led a studio in Albany Park, specifically serving Chicago Public School students aged 14–18. My responsibilities included facilitating discussions about city planning mechanisms, teaching architectural fundamentals, and mentoring a small team of students as they designed and built an engagement artifact.
Our team’s engagement artifact, alongside others created in the studio, was showcased at several “Walk in Our Shoes” events. These events provided a platform for studio participants to share stories about youth experiences in Chicago. The summer culminated in a public forum at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, where we presented our artifacts and narratives to the broader community.