Journeyman International

Our History

Daniel Wiens designed and built a clinic in Belize as his senior thesis project in college, and his life-changing experience opened up a world of humanitarian design that he wanted to share with other like-minded university students who want to make a difference. And so JI was born.

Our Mission

Journeyman International connects skilled university students and professionals in the architecture, construction, and engineering industries with humanitarian organizations around the world to design and manage projects that make a difference. In addition to providing great pro-bono services, JI is inspiring and training the next generation of humanitarian designers.

Our Values

By partnering student designers with local and global humanitarian organizations, JI provides sustainable design and construction methods to communities who need it most. We invest in the next generation of socially-minded architects, engineers, and construction managers by studying and addressing the ecological, economic and social issues shaping the built environment. These individuals come into our program with amazing design talent and passion to gain perspective from other cultures as they give back. Through this, they become inspired and empowered to make a difference in their careers.

Journeyman International - What We Do

In response to the world’s needs, we tap into the incredible talent found in university students who are studying architecture and related fields and who have open availability to pursue humanitarian endeavors as part of their senior thesis projects. JI pairs these socially-minded architecture students with real world humanitarian projects by connecting them with non-profits who need design or construction labor but may not afford it. We also partner students with sponsoring professional mentors in their respective industries as they go through the design process. Students spend months tirelessly researching social and environmental issues pertaining to their projects – much more time than most paid professional would spend, and for almost no cost. They pour their hearts and souls into their designs and, with the help of their mentors, hand off their visions and drawings to their ‘clients’ to be built or used for fundraising. JI’s business model takes these volunteers through a structured research and design process and gives them the ability to collaborate with interdisciplinary teams while working with their ‘client.’