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Provide Stipends for Thesis Students
The architecture faculty at Cal Poly is committed to maintaining a thesis at the undergraduate level. The thesis is the final step between the faculty led design studio and the independence of professional life after graduation and provides an important capstone to the students’ development.
Since 2002 students have organized a show of the thesis work at the Chumash Auditorium on the Cal Poly campus, highlighting their own sense of the importance of this moment in their education. The thesis show is open to the public over three days and is an occasion for the students to showcase their projects to colleagues, faculty, family and members of the larger community. Visitors to the show see a wide range of topics which demonstrate the breadth of the interests Cal Poly students develop over their five years in the architecture program.
The thesis is the moment of independence following four years of foundation and consolidation. It is the pinnacle of the student’s design achievement and may be the most important element of their portfolio as they apply for a job or graduate school. For this reason it is essential that deserving proposals be rewarded with financial assistance for travel (to site), materials (model building, books, etc), reproduction and printing, or other research needs (travel to libraries, construction of full scale elements, etc). The thesis projects of our students are a reflection of a particular intellectual, cultural and creative set of contemporary arguments that connect them to practice and the discipline of architecture.
Your gift will allow financial support for students who lack the financial means to fully develop their thesis topic. It is a gift not just for one project but also a teaser for a larger body of work to come.