Architecture students among groups selected for COVID-19 design/funding competition

Two Tulane School of Architecture graduate students - Casey Last (M.Arch) and Brandon Surtain (M.Arch/MSRED) - are part of a group recently selected for Tulane's new Sprinting to the Front Lines design competition. Their group was one of only six selected.

Sprinting to the Front Lines is a rapid funding mechanism for Tulane students to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak. Teams of current Tulane students were invited to submit a proposal that would directly impact the health and wellbeing of the New Orleans community during the COVID-19 outbreak. Projects were selected by a panel of three faculty at the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine and the six were selected from 50 applications submitted. Funding for Sprinting to the Front Lines was made possible by a generous donor.

The awarded students, their faculty mentor, and their project’s description are listed below. Work is set to begin by April 20, 2020.

Pass Dat Joy: A project in pursuit of creativity, joy, and community support in the wake of the COVID-19 global crisis

To create “Pass Dat Joy” a family art toolkit with resource packets, which will be distributed to resource-insecure families via a school feeding site and pantry delivery service operated by our community partner, Homer A. Plessy School in New Orleans. These toolkits will be designed to alleviate some of the stress facing families by pairing creative materials for children alongside informational materials for parents. The artwork created by the students is to be exhibited and shared online via social media #passdatjoy.

Student Team Members: Shaymaa Abdalal, PhD student in TRMD, Johanna Nice, PhD student in TRMD and Program Manager of Highly Vulnerable Children Research Center, School of Social Work, Casey Last, master's student in Architecture, Abi Mbaye, master’s student in English, and Brandon Surtain, master’s student in Architecture
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Lesley-An Noel, Phyllis M. Taylor Center for Social Innovation & Design Thinking and School of Architecture

For more information about Sprinting to the Front Lines, click here.