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Member Spotlight :: Helen Vasquez - Helen Vasquez

YAX scholarship award ceremony - Maryam Moayery Nia

Interview with Naomi Hawksley, YAX Scholarship awarded - Naomi Hawksley

Upcoming event :: # Me Too& You, Register now! - Bridget Basham

ACE Mentoring award ceremony - Maryam Moayery Nia

Past Event :: Book Talk with Christie Coffin - Maryam Moayery Nia

We spotlight a different OWA+DP member for each newsletter. This time, we hear from the lovely Helen Vasquez, one of the of the OWA+DP steering committee and this year membership/info admin.

YAX’s constituency is San Francisco public high school students. Youth from any SFUSD high schools can join, representing over a dozen schools citywide. The majority come from the OMI/Excelsior neighborhoods, with 6 different first languages, and diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds.
In 2018, OWA-DP generously provided a $1,000 scholarship to one of the student, Naomi Hawksley, based on her great skills.
The award ceremony took place on May 16th at Lick Wilmerding High School. Helen Vasquez from OWA steering committee attended the ceremony to present the award to Naomi.

Tell us a little bit about your background.
I grew up in San Francisco in a residential part of the city, and spent most of my life focused on the more academic aspects of my education. For a long time, I didn’t really know what I was interested in, so I spent a long time dipping my toe in afterschool activities like sports teams and performance-based forms of art making.

How did you come to design? And why did you decide to study this field?
Among the many activities I dabbled in outside of school, I found that I especially gravitated toward art classes. At first, I thought it was more of a hobby. Coming from a conservative Asian family, art as a career is typically frowned upon, but I thought it was a great way to pass the time and organize my thoughts. However, my experience attending an intensive arts program at CalArts called CSSSA would redefine my outlook on artwork as a valid career choice. Until that point, I had never actually seen artists teach and sell their own work to get by; it made me realize that a career in the arts was even feasible. I must also admit that it was, for lack of better term, pretty magical being surrounded by other creatives, peers and teachers alike, for an entire summer. Unlike the largely competitive environments in my academia, the CSSSA community was supportive and inclusive through and through.
After attending this program, I knew that art was something I wanted to take seriously, and I began participating in more programs outside of school and assisting in various studios. I want to further my skills in art school to immerse myself in the artistic community, to challenge my perceptions of the world, and hopefully do the same for whoever sees my work.

What have been the challenges in this process as a woman?
I feel that when people see me standing with my work, their first observation of the piece is that it’s very feminine. I don’t really know what that means, but I don’t think they’re really saying anything about the work- only about who has made it. I think people have a hard time seeing past the fact that whatever work was made by a woman, that the scope of it is then lessened, like the female lens is more limiting than any other.
In the classroom, however, I think dynamics are really shifting in a positive direction. A lot of the arts classes I’ve taken have had a female majority. Young women today are being told that they are just as capable as everyone else, and I feel like we are taking advantage of the opportunities presented to us more than ever before.

How did you hear about the scholarship and how did you feel when you heard you are nominated for that?
I heard about the scholarship at a Youth Art Exchange faculty meeting. When I got nominated I was pretty pumped, and was really excited about the writing aspect of it. In school, there aren’t many opportunities for such subjective writing, let alone topics of feminism and the importance of women in the art world.

How do you see your future in design field and specifically as a women in this field?
I hope to become a participant in the field whose work is viewed beyond the lens of “made by a woman”- my work aims to broaden one’s scope of vision, after all. I want to contribute to the artistic community, and support small, local artists as others have done for me.

Presented by Organization of Women Architects + Design Professionals, together with the AIA East Bay & hosted in GouldEvans' new event space. Generously sponsored by DunnEdwards Paint Company

Join professional women, colleagues & featured guests from the Bay Area in a facilitated conversation by OWA+DP's Spring Freidlander, surrounding the following topics:

• Celebrating male champions of change
• Stories of Harassment opened by Poet/ Singer/ Songwriter Melissa Jones
• Resources for disrupting an entrenched workplace culture

Featured guests to help ground the conversation to take place over lunch. Attendees will be invited to express themselves with color provided by Dunn-Edwards, helping to produce a mapping of the discussion throughout the day.

Please register for this FREE event here!

Celebrating the Legacy and Community of OWA+DP, 21-23 September 2018, at Westerbeke Ranch, Sonoma, California.

Mail your check with the form to
Heather Sprague, 154 Portola Drive Apt 3, San Francisco CA 94131
or Register online here!

The ACE (Architecture. Construction. Engineering.) Mentor Program of America, Inc. (ACE) helps mentor high school students and inspires them to pursue careers in design and construction. Their mission is to engage, excite and enlighten high school students to pursue careers in architecture, engineering, and construction through mentoring and to support their continued advancement in the industry.
In 2018, OWA-DP generously provided a $1,000 scholarship to one of the student, Cindy Li, based on her great skills.
The award ceremony took place on May 16th .Cameron White, Rachel Slonicki and Conyee Chan from OWA steering committee attended the ceremony to present the award to Cindy.

Thank you all for coming to our wonderful book talk with Christie Coffin! Special thanks to Laurel Bookstore, our beautiful host! Everyone enjoyed the amazing talk!

Thank you all steering committee for such a great event, especially Helen Vasquez, Maryam Moayery Nia and Conyee Chan for organizing the event!