KHS Students Drafting the Future

Diana Gish/KMXT

If a new high school is built in Kodiak some of its students may have a hand in the school’s design. A summer employment program funded by federal stimulus money is giving a group of Kodiak students hands-on experience in drafting and architectural design.

There’s a group of teens in Kodiak spending hours of their summer vacation in front of computer screens. That wouldn’t be noteworthy except that they’re busy at work designing a new school. And not some imaginary school but a school that future Kodiak students might actually attend.

Each of the young designers is a current or recent student of Kodiak High with at least two years of drafting experience. Their instructor or "career guide", is Nick Watkins, a third-year Architect student and himself a graduate of Kodiak High.

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Watkins’s students are working with the same software programs often used in college architecture classes. The budding architects were given the blueprints for what’s been proposed as Kodiak’s new high school.

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The school district’s architect is in communication with Watkins and his students. They get professional feedback for their work while he gets their insight as experts on Kodiak High.

I’m Diana Gish.