Earlier this year, the Architects Foundation awarded the 2022 Payette Sho-Ping Chin Memorial Academic Scholarship to Jada Cannon, a student at Cornell University.

This award honors late architect Sho-Ping Chin, FAIA, a long-time principal at Payette and a healthcare practice leader who was instrumental in defining and elevating the national discourse for women in design. As part of the prize, Jada will receive a $10,000 scholarship and will be mentored by an architect at Payette for the scholarship year.

Jada has acted as a historian for the University of Colorado Denver National Organization of Minority Architecture Students and as a volunteer for Architexx, a feminist architecture collective. Jada is now pursuing a Master’s in Architecture at Cornell University, and serves on the Diversity and Inclusion Council. Jada plans to utilize their background to become an architect who considers an array of different, often underrepresented, perspectives, and represents communal values in an accessible form.

“We are thrilled with the selection of Jada Cannon as the recipient of the 2022 Payette Sho-Ping Chin Memorial Scholarship,” said Kevin Sullivan, CEO of Payette.

“Jada’s vision and passion for architecture to positively affect change in our environment and the communities and culture of the places that we live and work, is inspiring. Jada embodies all the characteristics of someone that Sho-Ping would have much admired and would have loved to have met.”

Applications for the 2023 Payette Sho-Ping Chin Memorial Academic Scholarship will open November 7. Sign up to receive news about the scholarship opening.