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Corey Saft is a professor in the School of Architecture and Design and a licensed architect and a LEED-AP. Saft was the developer of the first certified PassiveHouse in the hot/humid zone of the American South and the first Louisiana LEED-platinum home outside of New Orleans.

The Graduate School has selected Saft as a recipient of the 2022 Outstanding Master’s Mentor Award. 

Ashlie Latiolais, graduate coordinator for the master’s in architecture program, notes that Saft’s service to the program is “astounding — with over 300-plus students filtered and shaped by his studio course, ARCH 509, the Master’s Project.”

Saft has taught the course for over 15 years. The studio course is seen as “a threshold in which the student transitions into a peer/colleague as they enter the architectural profession,” Latiolais notes.

“As a knowledgeable near-peer mentor, Corey creates a supportive environment for research and scholarship by fostering mutual respect and demonstrating active interest in the well-being of the student,” she adds.

Saft aims to give his students “an experience of critical but caring feedback in response to their efforts to move our shared world forward,” he says.

As students grow as professionals, their leadership abilities, self-confidence, and integrity are as important to develop as the quality of their work, Saft notes.

The studio environment offers an opportunity for “a lead-by-example type of mentorship” where all interactions around the work are an opportunity for learning.

“Each student manages a team of faculty, local professionals and subject matter experts in the process, and my role is, fundamentally, as a mentor guiding them through how to work with a team while bringing their own values and intentions into the world through the architectural skillset they have learned,” Saft explains.

Saft also regularly works with graduate research assistants on an array of projects. These include interactive highlighting compelling Louisiana cultural resources, small towns, and other significant information, as well as support for mixed income housing proposals in Lafayette and pro-bono design work for the Jeff Davis Communities Against Domestic Abuse Women’s Shelter.

Saft has provided further opportunities for graduate students to gain professional experience through his personal research and design firm.

“It is an exceptional opportunity to share with these students as they transition into future leaders and visionaries,” Saft says.