Yesterday, the AIA's Architects Foundation in partnership with Boston-based Payette Associates announced the winner of the second annual Payette Sho-Ping Chin Memorial Academic Scholarship, which supports and honors female architecture students. Olivia Huang of New Jersey, a 24-year-old M.Arch. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will receive $10,000 toward her tuition and will be assigned a senior mentor from Payette. To date, Huang has worked on systemic design with Agncy, a Boston-based nonprofit that focuses on affordable-housing development, and will begin her internship with MASS Design Group this summer. She completed a bachelor of arts in architecture at Princeton University.

Olivia Huang
Olivia Huang

“As a firm, we are excited to support Olivia and see her advance throughout her career,” an announcement on Payette's website read.

The Payette Sho-Ping Chin Memorial Academic Scholarship was established in 2016 to commemorate longtime Payette principal Sho-Ping Chin, FAIA, who passed away in 2015. Chin is remembered as an advocate for women in design and as a founder of the biennial AIA Women’s Leadership Summit. “She was a talented and compassionate architect who was fiercely determined to design healthcare architecture of the highest caliber for those in need,” according to the AIA press release. “Chin was an impactful mentor who instilled within her teams a sense of camaraderie and commitment to design.”

Eligible scholarship applicants must be entering their third year of undergraduate study or any level of graduate study at an National Architectural Accrediting Board–accredited architecture program. Previous scholarship winners may reapply.

To learn more about the Payette Sho-Ping Chin Memorial Academic Scholarship, visit architectsfoundation.org.