2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

The City of Lubbock, Texas, is a rapidly growing urban area. A significant contributor to this growth is Texas Tech University, a Hispanic-serving institution with an enrollment exceeding 40,000 students and a statewide economic impact of $3.5 billion. As both the City of Lubbock and Texas Tech University continue to expand, the downtown area has become a focal point for revitalization efforts aligned with the city’s Plan. In response to this initiative, the first author developed a summer camp project to engage local high school students in community-based architectural projects. The project aimed to provide local high school students with authentic design experiences, enhance their problem-solving skills, and cultivate their interest in STEM and architectural engineering. The one-week camp adopted Design Thinking (DT)-a holistic, iterative approach to creative problem-solving that emphasizes interdisciplinary collaboration and community engagement. Students were guided through the DT process, which included empathizing with community needs, defining problems, ideating solutions, creating prototypes, and testing their designs. Through hands-on activities, students learned how architecture and STEM can make their community more humanity-centered and environment-friendly. The camp concluded with a public presentation of the students’ architectural models at the Texas Tech Museum. This project highlights the intersection of architecture with sustainability, well-being, and community engagement, demonstrating how educational initiatives like the summer camp can address real-world challenges and promote holistic community development in the city. The summer camp successfully fostered students’ interest in STEM and architecture, enhanced their problem-solving skills, and empowered them to see their potential role in contributing to their community. A key takeaway was the importance of providing structured guidance to effectively mentor students and maximize human and social capital in the city.