Sponsor a Student for Ubuntu Architecture’s Summer Abroad Program

Every year, the Ubuntu Architecture Summer Abroad Program engages 30+ students in a unique educational experience to design & build dignified and culturally-influenced homes for resilient families in South Africa.

This innovative organization is now looking for sponsoring companies to support students for the 2021 program. Sponsors help open up this experience to as diverse a group as possible, providing architecture students with an incredible experience in the field of community-led design and construction. If your architecture firm is interested in finding out more about becoming a sponsor, hit the button below:

Sponsor a Student

Program Director and Founder of Ubuntu Design Group, Wandile Mthiyane, is passionate about the project, stating: “We believe in using architecture as a vehicle to bring about change. If apartheid architecture could segregate and oppress, community-based design can liberate and enable opportunity, growth, and commerce.”

Photo Credit for top right and bottom left images: Troy Homenchuk, Andrew Von Maur; top left and bottom right images: Wandile Mthiyane

Sponsorship of the Ubuntu Architecture Summer Abroad Program is ideal for architecture firms interested in connecting with a global initiative and contributing positively to the creation of a more equitable A&E industry. Sponsors supporting a student’s full expenses receive the following:

• Sponsor logo listed on website, sponsor boards, and in project publication
• Ability to see final work produced from the students before made public
• Invitation to view final work produced by the students of final home design in a virtual setting described by each team
• Invitation to the virtual ribbon cutting ceremony in Durban, South Africa at the completion of the project for two (1) screen (attendee)
• Introduction of sponsor to their supported student via email with a letter of gratitude from each student supported.
• Ability to post intern and full time positions to students via email (passthrough from our email system) with the ability for recommendations of students from course leaders and guests

Sponsorships can be done in 2 ways: a direct sponsorship of a student of your choice or a general sponsorship for a student selected by the Ubuntu team. In both scenarios, your donation is tax deductible, in the USA, and goes directly towards the student’s program fees.

As explained by Mthiyane in his in-depth article on systemic racism in architecture, the Ubuntu Architecture Summer Abroad Program is designed to encourage architecture students to think about the wider social, cultural and political impact of their work. “[The program] trains the next generation of architects to take a broader view of the impact of their work and consider it more than just creating beautiful functional spaces; it trains us to see, hear, think, and feel beyond the aesthetics and into the community in which it resides.”

If your firm would like to be a part of this educational initiative, get in touch with Mthiyane and his team today:

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