The Australian Institute of Architects is delighted to welcome Kathryn Neale, Blake Hillebrand and Aremel Tibayan into the 2023 SONA Executive team for the Student Organised Network for Architecture (SONA), following a recent election by SONA members.
In 2023 the SONA executive will be lead by SONA President Tom Huntingford and supported by Nicole Mesquita Mendes as Immediate Past SONA President.
The SONA Executive team works closely with the Institute to lead the national network of SONA representatives and contributes to the development of the national SONA program to achieve SONAs aim to foster student growth and enhancing architectural education.
We thank outgoing SONA Executive team members Alvin Zhu (Vice President Member Engagement) and Reem Daou (Vice President Competitions and Events) for their outstanding efforts this year in their roles.
2023 SONA EXECUTIVE TEAM
2023 SONA Vice President
Competitions and events

Kathryn Neale
Master of Architecture student at the University of Western Australia
I found my time as SONA Representative in 2019 highly rewarding.
Kathryn neale
SONA aims to advance the interests of students within the built environment, their education and the architecture profession as a whole through the promotion of student work and thinking. What interests you about taking this role and aligning yourself with SONA?
I found my time as SONA Representative in 2019 highly rewarding. My best outcomes in that role were the events I planned and executed, including SuperStudio 2019, and an in-house event connecting students with practitioners hosted at the Hassell Perth studio. But also, I was able to bring my professional experience in communications and marketing to leverage relationships and drive new membership for SONA. I envisage I will continue to do this in the VP role, to drive the success of SONA’s competitions, events and communication.
As a student of the built environment what issues matter most to you and how would you plan to use this role as a platform to address these issues?
I am particularly passionate about the Medium Density R-Codes in Western Australia, and effective infill on a national level. Furthermore, how can we design differently to achieve both Net Zero architecture and effective infill design which leverages Solar Passive design and nurtures our existing landscape? These are the kind of discussions I would bring to the fore, in this role, forging new ways of collaborative thinking amongst our peers, but also utilising AIA’s partnerships and sponsors in competitions and events to help student’s better understand sustainable product and material alternatives.
SONA aims to create a culture of camaraderie amongst students of the built environment. We do this by delivering events and competitions that are relevant, engaging and accessible to a diverse cohort of students within the built environment. How would you contribute to achieving this and what skills do you bring to this role?
I do think there are benefits in multi-level classrooms i.e. pairing Masters students with Bachelor students, or connecting students with graduates, or even Architecture students with other disciplines. I believe this enables the best mode of collaborative thinking and learning – bringing a diverse mix of experience and thought into one room. I would hope to apply this to competitions and events, in an effort to not only achieve a multi-dimensional conversation/approach, but also to deliver upon a culture of camaraderie and diversity.
I am a mature aged student, at age 34, and so I have a strong background from a prior career working in Marketing and Communications for over ten years. I would bring my wealth of knowledge and skills in this area to the role.
2023 SONA Vice President
Membership and engagement

Blake Hillebrand
Bachelor of Architectural Design student at RMIT
I am a passionate advocate for the advancement of student empowerment, connection, and development within the industry.
BLAKE HILLEBRAND
SONA aims to advance the interests of students within the built environment, their education and the architecture profession as a whole through the promotion of student work and thinking. What interests you about taking this role and aligning yourself with SONA?
I am a passionate advocate for the advancement of student empowerment, connection, and development within the industry. My roles as a SONA Representative, RMIT Architecture Student Collective (RASCol) President, and working in the profession have allowed me to acquire a holistic perspective on the needs of a vast array of students. This is vital in ensuring I can engage, promote, and represent a greater number of students with accuracy allowing me to organise and implement successful events and initiatives. Being a part of an immensely supportive/driven team at AIA has inspired me to want to take up this incredible opportunity to utilise my local and State experience on a national level for the benefit of all Australian students within the built environment. SONA should represent and empower all students to meet like-minded people, create lasting connections, and to progress their knowledge/skills to make an impact on the industry.
As a student of the built environment what issues matter most to you and how would you plan to use this role as a platform to address these issues?
Personally, transparency and empowerment are the two issues that matter most to me. When I say transparency and empowerment, I mean I want students to see and understand the reality of the industry and how we grasp what we can do to make it better for ourselves and those around us. For example, in 2022, one of the events I organised was the You Can’t Ask That! Event where I moderated a tremendous panel discussing uncensored questions that people are too afraid to ask. I want students to have the power and agency to seriously question our profession in the hope we can improve it. Through the curation and organisation of national initiatives/events such as a speaker series, workshops, and exhibitions we can tackle a range of issues impacting our industry’s development such as sustainability, mental health, and Indigenous promotion and action to educate and promote forward-thinking students.
One of our goals is to grow the SONA community and to ensure SONA members are actively engaged in our community, how would you contribute to achieving this?
Through my leadership positions within student organisations, I strongly believe that I can grow SONA and its level of engagement through delivering effective initiatives to a diverse cohort of students. In 2022, across SONA Victoria and RASCol, we have had a total of approximately 729 attendees to 9 events in 5 months which is a clear testament to the hard work of myself and the support and relationships directly around me. Additionally, we had the most Super studio signups from any state, RMIT has the most new-member signups (as per the latest copy). Additionally, as an executive of RASCol we have gone from 78 members to 191 members and were awarded the RMIT Student Life Club Award. I want to continue to lead and collaborate with others to deliver strong outcomes to students and to the wider industry through maintaining and harnessing connections for the benefit of all.
2023 SONA
President Elect

AREMEL TIBAYAN
Bachelor of Design (Architecture) student at Deakin University
I care about: the importance of our built environment education, the future where the built environment will benefit society and, the students, my colleagues and friends that’ll take us to this future.
Aremel Tibayan
SONA aims to advance the interests of students within the built environment, their education and the architecture profession as a whole through the promotion of student work and thinking. What interests you about taking this role and aligning yourself with SONA?
As president elect, I promise to dedicate myself to fulfilling SONA's/The Institute's vision, mission and goals that supports all built environment and architecture students by continuing and building upon the hard work of past/current executive members and representatives. Since I joined SONA in 2019, I've strongly understood the value that the organisation brings to all its members and non-members in areas of: advocacy, community and professional development. I plan to use my experience over the years to strengthen the current strategies to maintain the benefits that SONA provides to all students. As well as develop new approaches so that SONA continues to grow and adapt to the exciting and unknown future that is ahead of us in the built environment (from growing climate concerns, changes to built environment/architecture education and creation of advanced technology).
As a student of the built environment what issues matter most to you and how would you plan to use this role as a platform to address these issues?
The areas of concern that matter most to me are: 1. Present to students other possible careers to pursue with a built environment/architecture degree such as: urban planner, novelist or film director. Also, to extend the organisation for those not studying architecture: there is knowledge and skill from understanding other disciplines. 2. As we recover from the pandemic, we've seen the importance of looking after our wellbeing while studying. Life is difficult. But, we can learn to make it less difficult, by implementing healthy effective study/work/life balance approaches in our built environment education system to further benefit us as we become older. 3. SONA members and non-members are made up of a large demographic. I'm determined to provide students a chance to share their stories and, and to listen to each other. Listening to these stories is a learning experience that adds to the value of our built environment studies.
SONA aims to create a culture of camaraderie amongst students of the built environment. We do this by delivering events and competitions that are relevant, engaging and accessible to a diverse cohort of students within the built environment. How would you contribute to achieving this and what skills do you bring to this role?
I'm fully prepared to accept the responsibilities of president elect, to preform these responsibilities to the highest standard and to humbly serve the SONA community. From being a student member to becoming vice president, I've gained the necessary experience of working alongside representatives and executive team to deliver initiatives and promote the value of SONA to all students. I wish to contribute what I've learnt (from the failures and successes) to support the upcoming president, vice presidents, representatives and student members. I care about: the importance of our built environment education, the future where the built environment will benefit society and, the students, my colleagues and friends that'll take us to this future. As president elect, my hope is to be a part of the journey where we all reach our potential to contribute something great to the built environment within and outside of Australia.
2023 SONA
PRESIDENT

THOMAS HUNTINGFORD
Master of Architecture, University of Melbourne, Victoria
Thomas Huntingford
Through my engagement with SONA so far, as Melbourne Uni Representative and Vice President for Membership and Engagement, I have enjoyed the opportunity to think broadly about where SONA and the institute can offer meaningful value to students. By continuing into the president elect role I would like to think that I could help shape SONAs offering further by building upon SONAs strengths, namely running events and bringing students together, by ensuring that in emerging from COVID restrictions we recapture any aspects that may have been hindered by the last two years. But also, by thinking clearly about areas that could stand to improve and suggesting processes by which SONA could seek to address these areas continually over the long term.
In the wake of the isolation inflicted by the coronavirus I believe one of the key issues that I would continue seeking to address through SONA is student engagement and interaction. I believe SONA is uniquely positioned as a national organisation of built environment students to foster cross institutional collaboration that allows for the sharing of ideas and formation of relationships that in turn are the catalysts for initiatives and groups that may go on to impact the architectural profession. This contribution to a ‘culture’ of like-minded individuals is key to SONA and the Institute's intent to advance architecture. This year we have begun to implement various methods for engaging with members and SONA Reps through the Community platform and rethinking internal processes. By continuing on with SONA I would hope to continue developing how the organisation strengthens connections between all of the students involved.
Throughout my studies I have tried to be as actively engaged in the study of the built environment as I can be and have always sought out extra-curricular talks, student initiatives and other opportunities. I also have experience representing students and communicating the student perspective through my involvement with the MSD Student Forum, which works to communicate student viewpoints to the faculty at the MSD and having sat on the Victorian Chapter Council, Editorial and Education Committees. Finally I have a strong belief in the ‘do the thing,’ or ‘start by starting,’ approach whereby if an opportunity arises to make change or a good idea crops up I aspire to simply do it rather than wait around for someone else or ask for permission. In this way perhaps I could be seen to ‘lead by example.’
IMMEDIATE PAST
President

NICOLE MESQUITA-MENDES
Master of Architecture, Bond University, Queensland
Nicole Mesquita-mendes
In life, we have many responsibilities, but we can only ever do so much by ourselves. The way in which we have evolved as human beings’ hinges on our connections, to family, to friends, to our community. The stronger these connections, the more collaboration and sharing, the more fruitful our society is. SONA brings people together and in doing so makes our architectural community stronger and allows the architectural profession to more holistically contribute to the betterment of humanity.
The benefits of SONA are manifold but for me, the greatest value is in the conversations I have had and the friendships I have made. I have met many passionate students and professionals who inspire me and give me hope for the future of the profession. SONA’s culture of knowledge sharing, and collaboration means that individuals are given the opportunity to reach their full potential and in doing so we as a community have more agency.
Students are the future of the architectural profession. We have the responsibility to do more.

Add Your Heading Text Here
Click edit button to change this text. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.
ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.
SONA REPRESENTATIVE ROLE AND APPLICATION
SONA REPRESENTATIVES
SONA Representatives are ambassadors for SONA and the Australian Institute of Architects at your University. Reps help to intensify student’s university study and social experiences, providing opportunities for professional networking and career development.
