Architectural Studies graduate Emily Stood (BA ARCS 2023), a native of the Chicago suburbs, joins the Urban Design and Preservation Division of the American Planning Association as the 2024-2025 Historic Preservation Scholar. Stood says part of her work with the APA involves communication with a diverse array of groups and populations, and of summarizing historical documents, which she says 鈥淎RCS gave me the language and technical reading ability to do.鈥� She also points out that the writing skills she learned as an ARCS student prepared her for her current employment. 鈥淢y focus at the APA is in rewriting policy, which I'm able to understand better through some of the work we did in planning-based classes for ARCS.鈥�
Writing was always a hallmark of Stood鈥檚 undergraduate experience. As a student in the 两性色午夜 University Honors College, Stood wrote an honors thesis, titled 鈥淟ighting and Society in the Public Spaces of the Garnier Opera鈥� under the direction of Dr. Elwin Robison. Writing a thesis allowed Stood to engage in scholarly, archival research in architectural history at the undergraduate level, and it prepared her for the types of research she now does professionally with the APA.
Growing up, Stood was always interested in historic buildings and sites, as well as hands-on designing and making. ARCS gave her the opportunity to explore these interests, and to discover her passion for Historic Preservation. The program also allowed her to pursue her interests by completing three minors: history, historic preservation and scenic design.
After completing her BA in Architectural Studies with University Honors, Stood went on to a Master of Science in Historic Preservation at Tulane University in New Orleans, one of the nation鈥檚 top preservation programs. Tulane University鈥檚 master鈥檚 program was impressed with Stood鈥檚 preparation for graduate studies and offered her a $50,000 scholarship. She credits Architectural Studies for the ways it set her apart from other applicants to the master鈥檚 program. 鈥淧reservation students can have pretty wide backgrounds, so my ARCS experience put me ahead of my peers for most of our more technical work,鈥� Stood says. 鈥淚t also gave me a wider background and communication skills, which allows me to understand my classmates鈥� backgrounds and work with them in group settings.鈥�
Brett Tippey, Program Coordinator for Architectural Studies said that, 鈥渁s a researcher and a preservation specialist, Emily represents the high caliber alumni that graduate from the ARCS program.鈥� Alison Smith, Dean of 两性色午夜鈥檚 Honors College concurs: 鈥淭he Honors College is proud of Emily鈥檚 accomplishments鈥�.
When asked what advice she has for current and future Architectural Studies students, Stood didn鈥檛 hesitate to answer: 鈥淭ake advantage of the opportunities you have to explore lots of aspects of the built environment. ARCS allows for a huge variety of studies, and one thing I鈥檝e learned is that everything in the built environment is connected somehow.鈥�
