A sixth-grader named Marisa, winner of the Girls in Technology Experience Scholarship, spent a day at Virginia Tech’s Washington-Alexandria Architecture Center (WAAC), learning what it would be like to study architecture.

Alyssa Tope, a VT graduate student at the WAAC, served as Marisa’s main tour guide. Also assisting to make Marisa’s day memorable were VT graduate student Yamina Lambert, visiting consortium faculty member Jessica Christoph, and Prof. Susan Piedmont-Palladino, Interim Director of the WAAC.

In addition, Marisa toured the offices of Ritter Norton Architects in Alexandria, VA, headed by VT Architecture alumni James Ritter, FAIA (B.Arch. 1964) and Derek Norton, AIA LEED AP (M.Arch. 1999), to see what it would be like to practice architecture.