AACC’s Architecture Club relaunched in February, five years after COVID-19 shut it down.

According to club President William Menjivar, the group’s goal is the success of students in the field of architecture. The club plans to set up portfolio workshops, invite four-year colleges with architecture programs to transfer events and potentially feature keynote speakers.

“As we’re in the process of kind of launching, we’re in the process of also thinking who we are and [what] we want to do and how we want to serve our students,” assistant professor Jeffery Roberson, the club’s adviser, said.

AACC’s Architecture Club is a chapter of the American Institute of Architecture Students, which offers students scholarships, professional development and a conference.

Menjivar, a second-year architecture student, claimed the main challenge in starting the club back up after a lengthy COVID-19-induced break was for “someone to actually just pick … up the baton and run … with it.”

Roberson added because all of the pre-pandemic club members graduated, the organization no longer had anyone to move into the leadership role.

“There’s a lot of work in terms of, like, getting a club off the ground, and it’s a pretty big lift,” Roberson said. “Usually what happens is, you know, the students that have been around for a year or two, they’re … helping younger students transition into those [kinds] of leadership roles, and once that’s not there anymore, you know you’re really starting a new club.”

This club is recruiting students who are interested in design, not just those who want to be architects, according to Roberson.

“Our main demographic we’re targeting is architecture students, but it can be for anyone who isn’t,” Menjivar said. “It takes interest in architecture, [but] it doesn’t have to be architecture. It could be construction management or anything.”