 My name is Milan Jordan, and I'm director of the Hope Crew. And Hope Crew is an acronym that stands for Hands-On Preservation Experience. The National Trust created this initiative to give people experience in the preservation trades because there was an extreme shortage in preservation trade-skilled labor. When Hope Crew partners with architecture programs, we're really looking to create more preservation-minded future architects. So this was never a model where we were looking to create new trades, people who were going to go directly into the field of preservation trades. We just wanted architects who understood history and preservation better. Our HBCU Digital Documentation Fellowships are powered by the Action Fund and act as an extension of the work to sustain HBCUs into the future. The first year of the Digital Documentation Fellowship was a partnership with three HBCUs, Prairie View A&M University, Tuskegee University, and Florida A&M University. My name is Joshua Francis. I'm a fourth-year architecture major. So my project in the fellowship was to find and research three different historically-backed barrel grounds and then tell this story and ultimately choose a preservation experience for one of them. I ended up going with the Plantation Cemetery at Benton Hill, the newly founded New Hope Cemetery, and Old City Cemetery. So Old City Cemetery is located just outside of the historic boundaries of downtown Tallahassee. So when the cemetery was founded in 1829, it was literally across the street and just immediately outside the city limits. And in the first 11 years of its history, it was the public burying ground. It was open vacant federal land and families from town came out and staked their claim for their family burial plots. Matt Lutz is basically the staff of Old City Cemetery. He's the staff leader for the city clerk's office and the Tallahassee government. His job is to basically deal with records management of the site, as well as taking care of the site. So he got trained in cleaning the headstones, and that's why he was able to help us with the project. The decision to go with Old City Cemetery started with my meeting with Matt just because we were having interviews with everyone from each cemetery or burial ground. So we were walking and talking, and I just happened to notice a lot of the headstones are smaller. So my project addressed cleaning the headstones and trying to get them in shape for what little headstones that's there. In developing and sketching out this digital documentation fellowship, I think we really underestimated the role the faculty were going to play in this. They helped us find the projects. They helped us with the curriculum. They helped steward the students through the program. They were really mentors in their own right throughout this. I thought that Josh would be a perfect fit for the project. He was in a class of mine in the spring. He's been working here in the school, and I thought that he would have the leadership skills that pulled together a team and could work independently. I think his cemetery project is important. It's a situation. It's an issue. It's a challenge that isn't specific to Tallahassee. It's a national issue, and I think it's also important for the students to realize that cemeteries are examples of architecture. That parks are public spaces. Architects are involved in the design of these public spaces, so we should also be involved in the maintenance of them. And by them understanding the environmental impacts on these headstones and these sites of memory, hopefully they'll be better designers in the future. We're in Old City Cemetery because it was a spot that I picked. So I picked this spot just because of the history of it, with it being Tallahassee's oldest public cemetery. And it's by-law segregated. Right now it's full, so it's not the law anymore, but up until the point where it was full, it was segregated. So right now we're working on the historically black side, and then tomorrow we'll do some GIS mapping on the historically white side up in that corner back there. This fellowship definitely is shifting my thoughts on historic preservation because before, I would probably say I never really thought about historic preservation like that. It opened my eyes just for the different methods to preserve something. It doesn't always have to be hands-on in a dirt. It doesn't always have to be digital documentation. Talking to people and learning about a space can be preserving that space. The Hope Crew Fellowship, I think it's a great opportunity for our students. And not just the two students that are on the fellowship that are leading the project, but also all the students that are helping. I think for Joshua and Cornelius, it's a chance for them to practice their leadership skills. They not only have to finish the project, they have to organize the helpers. So it's a chance for them to demonstrate ability to be a team leader. I think, though, for all the other students, it's been a great opportunity to get increased introduction to what is historic preservation and really begin to understand the tools, resources, and how it really should be a part of every undergraduate architecture education. Just connecting to where I'm from, St. Croix, to the burial tactics and the ways they go about mourning and burial in Tallahassee. It's kind of different, but also a lot similar. In St. Croix, just the graves itself are different. It's more of that bed shape and structure. Going to St. Croix is not my first time cleaning a grave. I usually go every month to clean my mom's grave. So I can now put together that methods and stuff that I learned from Hope Crew and from this project to clean in my mom's grave. Today I'm going to be explaining the back history of the John G. Riley House, why John G. Riley himself is important in covering his house. I chose the John G. Riley House for its historical significance to education and community. As for John G. Riley himself, he was a very prominent figure, and we'll get to that on the next slide. Cornelius was also in a class I taught last spring. Probably I've known Cornelius for years. He is what stood out for Cornelius from me always, is he started at family architecture when he was in high school. He was one of these 11th, 12th graders that actually dual enroll and take a college class, but he naturally fit in. I think most of the faculty didn't know he was a high school kid in architecture classes at that time. I've watched him as he moves through our program. He's a local kid, which is great. So I think focusing on local sites of African-American history like the Riley House, would matter a little more to him than other students from Orlando, Miami who just picked a site. I think also the idea of the technology is important. We need to help our students know that this tech is not just limited to STEM, but it's also a way of archiving history and documenting historic sites. Working with Cornelius was such a unique experience. Knowing that he was a local kid from Tallahassee who'd worked so hard to get ahead and to get into the architecture program to even having his parents on site as he led his classmates was just such an amazing moment for him as a young adult. He was one of the first certified black teachers in the state of Florida. Also, he provided housing for most of the low-income black people in Tallahassee. It's actually really stunning when you see it during processing. So the color is fantastic for a preservation project like this because you're really going to see and understand everything in detail. The grayscale scanning is slightly less detailed just without the color. You can't make out things from a distance. So a house like this, what I would do is I'd start back because we want to capture the roof lines, any features on the roof, and anything that you need to line a site from a far away distance to capture. The machine that we've used in class, I personally scanned the entire truth hall and that took me around a hundred and twenty... In terms of Cornelius' project, I think it was important as a great site for other students to plug in. There are a number of historic sites like the Riley House that need to be documented. I think what his work will start to do is serve as a lab for the students to learn the use of the scanner, the drones, how to develop those digital tools, and then they can plug into the campus project we got funded for. Florida A&M University and Tuskegee University are also recipients of the African American Cultural Heritage Fund's Campus Stewardship Grant. When Hope Crew partners with architecture programs, we're really looking to create more preservation-minded future architects. So this was never a model where we were looking to create new trades, people who were going to go directly into the field of preservation trades. We just wanted architects who understood history and preservation better. I think the way Dr. Park sees it is the current elective Cornelius' current project is just a step toward getting more and more students plugged into the campus grant. I think that this experience allows our student body and the students to serve not only the architecture students, but also the community at the same time. So they could help survey the historic buildings, the historic structures. So I hope that they start looking around the neighborhood and thinking about how they can serve the community with what they can do right now. Ultimately, this makes a difference in our society. It's important to accurately document the historic building like the John G. Rowley House to provide any assistance in any repairs or rehab or reconstruction of a house like this just to make sure it's accurate to the time period before it was maybe destroyed. For the students to enter those spaces after they've done so much research about the lives of the people that either were buried there or lived in these houses or went to these schools, you see that connection happen. So not just to the building itself, but to the history that that building tells. It feels amazing to see how my research and training has come together this week for the students and the community around it just to see that people still care about these old buildings and these historic sites. This allows the community to remember and keep moving forward and succeeding where they stopped. History really shouldn't be lost because it really provides us with a sense of direction and a sense of progress of how far we've come. As I was cleaning John Rowley's headstone the other day I really felt really gracious to continue the legacy of his life's work through education of other students in how to preserve things like his house. The Digital Documentation Fellowship seems to have touched each one of the fellows in a very different way. We've seen them grow, evolve, get professional training, find new avenues of interest and really see themselves in the movement. Many of our fellows are interested in exploring advanced degrees, master's degrees in architecture and preservation now as well too. Entrepreneurship, they got a taste of what it was like to lead teams and to work independently and they really see that as a part of their future in path now as well. You know the fellows have worked so hard to design projects that are benefiting their community and I'm hoping that that continues after we leave. We've given them the tools and allowed them to make those connections locally with people doing preservation and we're hoping not only can we assist in that continuing but that they will personally continue the work after we leave. I think this fellowship would affect my career and study in a good way because with my study architecture you kind of design buildings to last forever. A lot of my designs moving forward would probably be a lot more sustainable, a lot more easy to preserve and a lot more. And I'll just think about the culture and the people around the building as a whole. Historic preservation means to me the ability to save historic sites and historic events. I feel really honored to be able to do these projects with the whole crew and everyone. Especially in Tallahassee where I'm from just to add to the history, record the history of the city so that way no one's history is lost.