{"id":8040,"date":"2023-05-09T13:40:03","date_gmt":"2023-05-09T17:40:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/?p=8040"},"modified":"2023-05-09T13:40:03","modified_gmt":"2023-05-09T17:40:03","slug":"class-of-23-graduate-looks-to-redesign-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/2023\/05\/09\/class-of-23-graduate-looks-to-redesign-the-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Class of ’23: Graduate looks to redesign the future"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AngelTo mark the graduation of the Class of 2023, Marketing & Communications is profiling several students who were nominated by staff and faculty for their contributions to the University and their potential to make a difference after graduation.\u202fClick here<\/a>\u00a0for more information about 2023 commencement exercises.<\/em><\/p>\n

Though laser focused on architecture, Angel Mangham says, \u201cI don\u2019t have just one thing I want to do.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

That might be why her list of accomplishments is so long it reads like it is for someone much older and more experienced than the soon-to-be graduate with a bachelor\u2019s degree in Architecture.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Flint resident\u2019s interest in architecture began early, when she passed by empty and abandoned lots on the way to and from her bus stop and wondered why. As she grew older, the route to the bus stop included more and more empty houses.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was young, and I picked up on that,\u201d Mangham said. She won a writing contest in fourth grade writing about the issue and decided she could build something.<\/span><\/p>\n

The oldest of eight children attended Flint\u2019s Mott Middle College, a high school that specializes in overlapping associate degrees with a general education high school diploma and looked for ways to learn about architecture.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSome people don\u2019t even know what architecture is,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I wanted to do it. I picked a random firm and did an internship in high school, and they helped me learn some of the technology you need.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

She continued with internships and stayed an extra year at Mott and when she graduated, she had 62 college credits and a growing love of architecture.<\/span><\/p>\n

She had her heart set on another architecture program, but after a visit she felt something was missing. When she visited Detroit Mercy\u2019s\u00a0School of Architecture & Community Development<\/a>\u00a0(SACD), she found what she wanted.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was small, and you start in the Architecture program on Day 1,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another thing that attracted her to SACD was the diversity of students she saw.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI could see people who looked like me doing what I wanted to do,\u201d she remembered. \u201cI knew this was the place.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Her first professor in the SACD program was a Black man and that also made her feel at home. Architecture is a field that is only 23% women, 2% Black. According to the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards, there are only 566 Black women architects working today.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI look around and see other women in class and other Blacks and I don\u2019t get discouraged,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

One especially meaningful experience was attending SACD\u2019s Volterra study abroad program, where she studied architecture in a historic hilltop town in the heart of Tuscany. Volterra has more than 3,000 years of history, and students study the social, economic and political aspects of the area.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"ManghamMangham extended the trip and traveled mostly alone to 17 cities in nine countries to explore the history of other cities and see how she could adapt concepts of reuse to distressed urban areas like Flint, where she hopes to use her skills to make life better.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mangham has made her mark at Detroit Mercy. As president of the school\u2019s chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architecture Students, she works to amplify the voices of Black architects.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe do exist,\u201d she said. As president, she organizes tours of local architecture firms, holds portfolio and resume workshops, presents a lecture series and more to help students prepare for post-graduation.<\/span><\/p>\n

She\u2019s also in the Honors Program, where her independent study project was on the \u201cthin line between love and hate of buildings and how we treat them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The project was inspired by Flint Central High School, which closed 15 years ago, and remains standing, though abandoned.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was emotional research,\u201d she said. \u201cThe building has a presence. I looked at who it was made for and why and was focused on the middle between construction and demolition. There are ways to preserve and reuse it before it ever gets to the point of tearing it down. It\u2019s not that I don\u2019t like designing, but I found I like redesigning more.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Mangham is part of the Emerging Leaders Program, worked with TRIO, volunteers with the Marygrove Conservancy and Step Up, which works with fourth and fifth graders to help them become leaders. She is a member of the Student Alumni Leadership Council, which helps plan University-wide events, worked at the Detroit Collaborative Design Center, a nonprofit design company run within the SACD, and is a resident adviser in the dorms.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why be so involved?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to make your own fun,\u201d Mangham said. \u201cI am trying to get the most out of school, and being involved is one way. I\u2019m kind of sad that I\u2019m graduating, but now I get to go out in the world and make fun there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To mark the graduation of the Class of 2023, Marketing & Communications is profiling several students who were nominated by staff and faculty for their contributions to the University and their potential to make a difference after graduation.\u202fClick here\u00a0for more information about 2023 commencement exercises. Though laser focused on architecture, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":8042,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[29,7],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/88\/2023\/05\/DSC08118-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1820&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8Kcng-25G","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8040"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8040"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8043,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8040\/revisions\/8043"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}