What is link?

Link is a three week project that all animas high school juniors must do. In these three weeks the juniors are sent off to a internship of their choice. During these three weeks, they must obtain a confirmed 90 hours working with whomever they chose. This means 30 hours a week and over the three weeks, they will work to make a project that they  can present by the end of their link internship. The whole experience is orchestrated by said junior.  

 What is my link?


​I chose to spend my three weeks of link at Steve Gates Architect firm. This is a business run by Steve gates and his team, who is an architect, along with this, he is a contractor, meaning his title together is a design and build specialist. This is very useful, as clients building a house only have to deal with one person, not two. Along with this he and his team runs a construction company, called E- Terra.

Weekly reflections:

Week 1: Throughout this week, we worked to research architecture and the process it requires to get there. Along with this, we worked on some website formatting and researching logos and graphic design. I was able to deepen my knowledge of Photoshop skills, as well as my knowledge of graphic design. On the first day in the office, Lisa, who is the chief financial officer, began working with us and gave us the task of researching architectural necessities. So we spent the majority of that day researching, we looked at three large architectural websites, as well as colleges to see which ones support architecture. I am incredibly grateful for this time of research, and I truly learned so much. However, I learned that it is a minimum of 8 years before you can be a certified architect. This was a bit discouraging for me, and it made me worry about the time frame and financial responsibility it takes. On the second day, we began working on reformatting photos. Throughout this project, I worked with Jonah to determine how to properly format the images. Along with this, we were instructed by Trung, who works in the office and has been assisting us in this project. Something challenging for me in this process was putting the project photos into the new project archive file. It taught me how to successfully manage the Files app appropriately. Along with this, we got the project proposal for our cabin project and began working on it. This was very exciting, as we got to truly see into the world of architectural work and see the process of designing a building.
Week 2: For this second week, we have really dove into our cabin project. We spent the entirety of this week designing our cabins and making a presentation that will display them. This gave me a lot of insight into the work of architecture, as working in Sketch Up to create the design of a residential or commercial building has a lot more depth than one might see. As it is such a complex tool, I faced some challenges in designing my cabin. However, as this was a bit more of an individual project, we learned how to better use our resources and figure out how to efficiently determine how to do something we did not know how to do before. As I have done this internship with Jonah, it was interesting to see our different methods of adaptation to this app. For instance, Jonah tended to lean more towards the tutorials, while I would simply mess around in the app to teach myself. While I did use my resources for things that were very difficult to figure out, it allowed me to develop a mindset that allowed me to better understand overall computer skills. Along with this, I was able to observe another architectural presentation online and discover what it contained in an architectural presentation. This has allowed me to learn the realities of working in architecture, as it is a lot more of just sitting around on a computer than I had realized. I have been slightly less excited about working in the architectural-related field. 
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 Week three - Final: This final week of the internship, I worked to design a shed. This has been a beneficial project, as it shows me the true parameters that architects go through to design a project. Even if the project is as simple as a cube-shaped shed, it can have such complexities within the logistics of placement and materials. Along with this, you must factor in the client's requests and cost as well as materials. Something that came up as a challenge for me was factoring in the space accounted for by the walls, ceiling, and floor. Something different between this selfie and the selfie from my first day in the office is that at this point, I had grown as a professional individual and a person overall. I believe this time period taught me to persevere and to work through challenging technological difficulties, and I am incredibly grateful for the experience, and I am sad to leave the Steve gates architecture company.