Robert L. Wesley Award

In 2020, the SOM Foundation created the Robert L. Wesley Award—named in honor of the first Black partner at SOM—to support BIPOC undergraduate students enrolled in architecture, landscape architecture, interior architecture, urban design, or engineering programs in the United States. Each year, three students will receive a $10,000 award in addition to a yearlong mentorship program that connects the students with leading BIPOC practitioners and educators. The awards are unrestricted in their use to best support the needs of students. Students are also supported by Black Spectacles as they work toward becoming licensed architects.

Applicants need to be enrolled in a four- or five-year undergraduate program and can be enrolled in any year of their undergraduate program. A recipient of the Robert L. Wesley Award is not excluded from reapplying in subsequent years while enrolled in an undergraduate program.

Learn more about Robert L. Wesley here.

Read Robert L. Wesley’s oral history here.