2023 Summer Internship Experience

As summer comes to a close, I’d like to share some thoughts on my time as an intern with SoCal NOMA; I enjoyed being a part of the planning and execution team for SoCal NOMA’s 14th Annual Architecture Summer Camp and Job Shadowing Program.

Serving as president of Cal Poly SLO NOMAS over the past year deepened my appreciation for the ways in which architectural design can be used to tackle JEDI (justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion) related issues (e.g. harmful housing policy, gentrification, etc.), and impressed upon me the importance of providing students with opportunities to practice crafting solutions. The aim of the camp is to introduce architecture to K-12 youth that might not otherwise have had exposure to this field; the campers are asked to address community-focused issues through design, which is not unlike the work that NOMAS students carry out. As such, I was excited to give back and help inspire young students to pursue architecture.

My primary duties for the camp included handling overall logistics and coordinating joint arrangements between teams. This camp had a great many more moving parts than prior projects I’ve been involved in, so it was both necessary and an interesting challenge for me to stay flexible. Although challenging at first, I quickly learned to communicate more efficiently and precisely with multiple teams to resolve setbacks.

For the final portion of my internship, I collaborated with Elise McCurley and Saif Vagh of NAC Architecture’s Los Angeles office to design and execute a three-day job shadowing experience for two high school campers eager to learn more about the architectural profession. The high schoolers weren’t the only ones having a blast — I got to know some wonderful people and was inspired to hear about how architecture and design fit into their lives. 

I’m grateful for the support that Cal Poly College of Architecture & Environmental Design , SoCalNOMA - Southern California Chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architects , and NAC provided me with. I’m glad to have been a part of so many K-12 students’ architecture and design journeys, and I’m excited to continue my own!