Alise Kuwahara is a fifth year architecture student at Carnegie Mellon University. Through her work with the Urban Design Build Studio and the people of Homewood, Ms. Kuwahara has become an advocate for a participatory design process in which the residents are able to voice their opinions about the changes they would like to see in their own community. She is currently working on her thesis, which she will complete this May. After graduation, Ms. Kuwahara hopes to find a job with an architectural firm or other organization that shares her interest in the relationship between social issues and the built environment. She is originally from Kent, Washington.