A Vision for Shared Dialogue: Genesis Rodgers Takes on New Role as Student Representative of the School of Architecture Foundation Board

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Soon to be a double Hoo, Genesis Rodgers (BSArch '21, MUEP ’26) first joined the A-School as an undergraduate architecture student in 2017. Through completing the design-thinking concentration in architecture, Rodgers learned about the power of creative storytelling. This passion continues to influence her now as a graduate student pursuing a master’s in urban and environmental planning, and is, in part, an ethos she carries into her newly appointed role as the inaugural student representative on the School of Architecture’s Foundation Board of Trustees.

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Photo courtesy of Genesis Rodgers.

When asked how she would prepare for this role, Rodgers said, “Effective resource management and policy change responds to excellence in people — and place-based storytelling. To me, the heart of this role as student representative extends beyond traditional advocacy that may be overly focused on ‘fixing’ current problems in the School of Architecture. This inaugural platform invites more generative and imaginative approaches to storytelling about challenges, vision, and purpose among students.” 

Going into this role, she asks: 

“As current students and citizen leaders, what do we dream of for future generations of students coming after us? How will we make meaning from our current trials and remember our victories?”

Rodgers’ wide-ranging experiences at the School of Architecture and the university at-large include working as a research assistant for the Center for Design and Health, serving as an instructional assistant for an introductory course on design-thinking, and chairing the UVA Career Center’s Peer Advisors team.

Recently, she has participated in UVA Advancement’s Scholarship Stewardship Program and engaged with the university’s Office of the Architect and stakeholders across the College of Arts and Sciences on the development of a comprehensive facilities space-planning guide. 

She is currently a thesis candidate in the graduate urban and environmental planning program focusing her research on community-driven planning and design methods, heritage preservation, and tourism and rural development in the Caribbean. Rodgers is also the recipient of multiple distinguished scholarships and awards including the school’s Graduate Student Merit Scholarship and the Henry J. Javor Bicentennial Undergraduate Scholarship. 

Before returning to UVA as a graduate student, Rodgers worked as a consultant for Buro Happold Engineering in Arlington, Virginia, where she focused on complex space programming, campus planning, and experience strategy services for sixteen unique higher-education clients across the United States.

As the student representative on the School of Architecture’s Foundation Board of Trustees for the 2025-26 term, Rodgers expressed her aspirations for serving as a voice for her peers. “I dream of helping each other to…imbue our collective student narrative with the pure power of co-authored creativity."

"Generating shared dialogue around student representation provides an exciting and auspicious opportunity for us all to re-invest in the School of Architecture, live our shared values, and demonstrate the power of community-based courage during a time of great change and uncertainty.”

Rodgers looks forward with excitement to pave a path in this inaugural leadership role. In the meantime, she shared that when she isn’t investing time to her academic, creative, service and community-building goals, she can be found “stretching in the studio, talking to nature, or searching for the best curry in Central Virginia with [her] partner, Matthew.”