Daniel Goering, a cinema studies graduate from Oberlin College who now works for a general contractor, found himself on the top floor of the University of Illinois Chicago's College of Architecture, Design and the Arts building on a July afternoon, creating a summer folly with foam and learning new computer programs. His journey to architecture represents the diverse paths that lead students to UIC's innovative YArch summer program, which welcomes learners of all backgrounds and ages.
Goering's participation in the month-long intensive program reflects his continuing passion for art, even after spending a decade working outside his chosen college major. He initially wondered whether he could adapt to an academic schedule so long after graduation, but found himself surrounded by a remarkably diverse group including undergraduates, secondary teachers on summer break, recent graduates considering architecture master's degrees, and professionals with established careers in other fields.
The YArch program, pronounced "why-arch," emerged from the recognition by architecture department instructors that many graduate school applicants lack formal architecture backgrounds. "A lot of the people that come in feel like, 'I really want to tap into something creative and have always thought about architecture,'" explained Ethan O'Kane, adjunct assistant professor in the UIC College of Architecture, Design and the Arts. "I think this is a really diverse group with a lot of interests and experiences."
During the four-week July program, students immerse themselves in both fundamental and advanced architectural concepts. The curriculum includes comprehensive tours of Chicago and visits to various architecture studios, where participants learn about the operations of large firms and how smaller practices differ in their approaches. Students also develop final projects that demonstrate their understanding of architectural principles while incorporating their unique perspectives and backgrounds.
For his final project, Goering drew inspiration from the ever-growing dining table scene in the 1941 film "Citizen Kane" to design a building representing the convergence of opposing viewpoints in debate. "One of our instructors gave me a comment that each building reminded her of characters themselves, so I've really tried to run with that," Goering explained. "Unlike Citizen Kane, I would like the possibility of a central coming together, that the horizontal space of the table is hopefully an opportunity for people to go their separate ways, but then return. The relationship is part of the story of the building."
The program attracts participants spanning multiple generations and life stages. While the youngest attendee in 2025 was a 19-year-old undergraduate, the oldest participant had two college-age children. Gwen Fullenkamp, director of student academic affairs in the school of architecture, credits this diversity of experiences as the driving force behind YArch's creation in 2008. "Our graduate program has been really accepting of students from lots of different backgrounds and points of view, often coming from totally unrelated fields," she noted.
UIC's architecture master's program notably does not require an undergraduate architecture degree for admission. "We've seen how they can really thrive in architecture, even if they haven't come in with an undergraduate architecture degree," Fullenkamp added. The YArch program represents a natural extension of this inclusive philosophy, serving different purposes for different participants. While some students find the four-week experience satisfies their architectural curiosity, others use it as a stepping stone toward graduate school applications.
Goering exemplifies the latter group, as his YArch experience motivated him to apply to architecture graduate programs, including UIC's. "My No. 1 goal coming out of this month was to give myself a firm answer as to whether or not I was going to be filling applications for grad school," he said. "In the middle of week three, I was locked in – yes."
The comprehensive curriculum covers structural design using compositional strategies and explores relationships between volumetric spaces. Students master various architectural software for project representation while studying architectural theory through guest lectures and receiving portfolio feedback from UIC professors. Peter Huynh, who majored in architecture at The University of Texas at Arlington and came to Chicago specifically for YArch, found the program valuable despite his formal background. "I'm really drawn to the writing aspect of the architecture program at UIC," Huynh said. "I think I'm more interested in how architecture affects the human experience and how we can enhance it or sort of dial it down."
Clinical Associate Professor Ania Jaworska, who serves as a YArch instructor, observed remarkable progress among participants. "We felt like the students achieved success two weeks in," she noted. "That's when they started to show us their great ideas and concepts and developed that kind of architectural thinking that everyone had to adjust to. The projects have imposed boundaries and rules, but there's also a lot of open-endedness, and every student has created original projects that reflected their individual approach and ideology."
The success of YArch led to the development of HiArch, a summer camp designed for high school students. This program runs for one to two weeks instead of four, with the second week being optional. Remarkably, nearly two-thirds of the 60 high school participants in this year's camp returned for the extended experience. HiArch attracts students from throughout the Chicago metropolitan area, offering instruction in everything from hand drawing to 3D rendering and computer software applications.
The high school program culminates in exhibitions at the end of the first week, with students who continue into the second week augmenting their digital creations with physical model making before a final exhibition. According to Fullenkamp, HiArch participants show higher rates of eventual architecture school enrollment compared to YArch graduates, as many already possess strong design interests. "HiArch is a little bit of a different animal in the sense that it's more focused on learning and making architecture over two weeks, and we don't take them off campus," she explained.
The program has created a pipeline effect, with students participating in HiArch for multiple summers before enrolling in UIC's undergraduate program. "Every year since we started it, we have several incoming freshmen who have done HiArch at some point in their high school career," Fullenkamp noted. Both YArch and HiArch accept applications annually through May via the College of Architecture, Design and the Arts website.
For participants like Huynh, the program's greatest value lies in exposure to diverse perspectives that traditional architecture education might not provide. "It's amazing because I see someone from a physics background, and I can see their perspective on architecture," he observed. "Then I see someone studying psychology, and I see their perspective. It's refreshing to hear new ideas and see new projects, because in my cohort in college, everyone is sort of molded the same way. Here, it's exciting to see new ideas and in ways I've never thought about."
