The AIAS Chapter at The University of Arizona is dedicated to improving the educational and professional careers of its members through non-profit means. Every year, it hosts a variety of events for the College of Architecture in efforts to promote collaboration among its students as well as success and excellence in the classroom. These include but are not limited mixers, fundraisers, and workshops.
Education put aside, the chapter enjoys hosting fun-spirited events such as its annual Faculty-Student Dinner Auction. This is the organization’s biggest, most popular fundraiser of the year and all proceeds directly benefit the Freedom by Design program, as well as their annual Beaux Arts Ball (a fun end-of-the-year party also for the students). It raises around $4,000-6,000 each year!
For this event, various faculty generously help the AIAS chapter by volunteering their time to host a group of students for dinner. The faculty and faculty teams are new each year and are unknown to the student body until the gradual release of the teams leading up to the event. This keeps the excitement around the auction up. As the teams are released, students begin assembling groups of 4-6 to bid on their favorite faculty in hopes of winning dinner and maybe even a networking opportunity. It’s fun when students try to hike the prices up in order to see how much other teams are willing to spend on the opportunity.
The pictures displayed are of the past 2016 Faculty-Student Dinner Auction as well as this year’s advertising posters for the event, created by Public Relations Director, Van Escobar with assistance from Secretary Jenny Nguyen. Because the chapter likes to draw attention and excitement to their events through the graphics they put out, a lot of time is spent on creating posters and social media content. This year Bitmoji was the chosen theme and seems to be a crowd favorite!
