A student from the Illinois Institute of Technology College of Architecture has been awarded a scholarship designed to promote diversity within Chicago’s architectural community. Le Thuc Ny Phan, who is in her third year of the Bachelor of Architecture and Master of High Performance Buildings program, received the 2025 American Institute of Architects (AIA) Chicago Foundation Diversity Scholarship. The scholarship provides recipients with a $10,000 stipend distributed over two years and includes mentorship from an AIA Chicago member.
The AIA Chicago Foundation Diversity Scholarship has been presented annually since 2019 to one undergraduate and one graduate student from the Chicago area. Out of 14 total recipients, nine have come from Illinois Institute of Technology’s College of Architecture.
“I’m honored to be the recipient of the scholarship, not only for the financial support but the acknowledgement of our mutual commitment to diversity,” said Ny.
She added: “To me, diversity isn’t just a check box that you have to meet. I think it’s a way of life. I look at it as a garden: If you have an ecosystem that’s diverse, it’s healthy. If you have just one type of plant or weed over and over again, you drain the soil and it’s not as healthy.
“That applies in architecture as well. We need opinions from older generations, but also newer, fresh perspectives from younger generations. We need designs from all cultures and races that are based on culture and individual environment.”
Ny was born in Vietnam and lived there until she was 12 before moving to Columbus, Ohio in 2017. She showed interest in design early on by sketching house designs at age four and making notes about how they should be constructed.
Ny now focuses on sustainable design in her academic work. “I like studying high-performance buildings because they’re energy efficient, resilient, and have systems that are not more wasteful than they need to be,” she said. “As we’re approaching the end of the climate crisis, extremes are exaggerated, and we need to make sure our houses provide safety.”
She is particularly interested in compact living concepts such as tiny homes or coach houses with space-saving features like murphy beds or convertible cabinets.