Jan 3 2006
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) announced today the recipients of the “Award for Excellence in Professional Continuing Education.”
Cannon Design, from Grand Island, N.Y. was honored in the large firm category, AIA Northern Virginia was honored in the AIA Component Provider category and Rogers Krajnak Architects, Inc., from Columbus, Ohio in the small firm provider category for honorable mention.
Established eight years ago, the annual award recognizes educational providers to architectural and engineering firms and their commitment to an overall system of developing high quality professional continuing education programs. Winners will accept a trophy at the AIA/CES MarketPlace at the AIA 2006 Annual Convention and Design Exposition next June in Los Angeles.
Joanna C. Merletti, Director of Training and Development at Cannon Design stated, "The AIA’s submission process has been very beneficial in that it provides a framework to organize educational plans using a systemic approach. The approach, based on the Malcolm Baldridge Quality Award, offers comprehensive core competencies and emphasizes the areas of strategy and measurable outcomes. These principles have helped to enhance our existing program, which has been very successful."
"We are pleased and honored that the AIA has given us this prestigious award for our architectural programs. We believe that the RKA Mentoring Program has consistently improved our professional development, sharpened our presentation skills, reinforced our firm’s values and promoted our staffs’ quest for continuing education in a real and meaningful manner," said Peter Krajnak, AIA, principal of the firm Rogers Krajnak Architects, Inc.
"Choosing a career as an architect means that you have accepted a lifelong pursuit of knowledge and education. I also feel it is the experienced architect's role to mentor students and interns. At Rogers Krajnak Architects, we find that the experienced architects learn as much from younger staff as the younger staff learn from them. Our in-house continuing education/mentoring program directly relates to these philosophies and provides invaluable staff interaction."
Executive Director of AIA Northern Virginia Deborah S. Burns, Hon. VSAIA, said, "Professional development is a top priority of our chapter leadership and we have been working to develop a strong continuing education program for the past six years. The Providers Award actually helped us improve our program. The first time I looked at the call for entries, I knew we weren’t ready to apply. I used the criteria to help determine the areas we needed to develop and expand. We are very honored to receive this award, but will continue to work on improving our program every year."
According to the AIA, each winner demonstrated excellence in all phases:
- “Commitment and support” examines the firm’s leadership, support, and commitment to education.
- “Planning and analysis” examines the organization’s structure for analyzing educational needs and professional development of the architect.
- “Design and implementation” reviews the program, learning objectives, design, and delivery methods.
- “Resources and records” examines human resources and the record keeping process.
- “Evaluation and improvement” examines the evaluation and improvement process of the education activities.
- “Continuing education services, provider specific” is the area in which judges examine the organization’s community outreach through educational programs and services.