Portuguese woman heads new design school in the US

Soraia Mendes takes over as director of the School of Architecture & Interior Design in Newark, in a public project that combines creativity, technique and community impact.

The city of Newark, New Jersey (USA), is preparing to open a new public school dedicated to architecture, interior design and specialised technical training — and it has a Portuguese woman at the helm. Soraia Mendes, a native of Tamengos (Anadia), has been appointed founding director of the newly created School of Architecture & Interior Design, taking up her post on 1 August.

Scheduled to open in September, the new educational establishment is located in the heart of the Ironbound neighbourhood, a distinctly Portuguese-American area where Soraia herself grew up. ‘It’s a return with enormous emotional and symbolic significance. I grew up in this neighbourhood, I studied here, and now I’m back to lead a project that looks to the future,’ the educator told the Luso-Americano newspaper.

The new school — public and innovative — is committed to an educational structure that combines secondary education with access to higher education, thanks to partnerships with local universities. Students will be able to accumulate university credits while completing secondary school, gaining a competitive advantage if they wish to pursue higher education in creative or technical fields. The training offer will also include technical courses in interior design, plumbing, electricity and air conditioning systems (HVAC), responding to real needs in the labour market.

For Soraia Mendes, the building that will house the school has added symbolic value: it was the hospital where her niece was born and where her parents sought medical care. ‘Taking on this mission in that place has a very strong emotional weight,’ she shares.

Soraia Mendes built her career between Portugal and the United States. After completing her degree in Modern Languages and Literature at the University of Coimbra, she returned to the US, where she taught English and served as vice principal at Technology High School for over a decade. With a master’s degree in Educational Leadership, she is now preparing to take a new step, this time at the intersection of creativity, technology and community.

The school will start with 9th grade students and an initial capacity for 240 students. The goal, by the 2028-2029 school year, is to reach around 960 students, creating a solid foundation for training future professionals in the fields of design, construction and applied arts.