An architectural internship is a journey leading to a position of higher knowledge and authority within the design profession. The architectural license is a goal all work towards during the process of internship. For me, the journey began in college, through my university's cooperative education program. I began my collegiate career as a pharmacy student. I was given the opportunity to intern at a prestigious hospital with top professionals in the field. Through this internship experience, I was able to reach a realization that my career path was one that would not allow me to achieve my goals and award me with job satisfaction.

From my experiences with internships, I have gained an immeasurable amount of knowledge that could not have been learned in a classroom. I also experienced that not all internships are valuable. In order to achieve a well rounded intern experience, the student should be able to achieve a higher level of understanding through interaction with licensed architects, fellow interns, clients and contractors to name a few. The intern must be guided through the process of design from the idea, through schematic design and into construction. It is also important to give the intern the space to explore their own ideas and concepts and to make mistakes.
An internship should teach the importance of service to our clients through hard work and knowledge of the profession. It should also teach passion for the art of creating an entire building down to the smallest space inside. Too often today, an architect moves away from complete project ownership. The details and the follow through are often left to others who apply their own interpretation. This in turn will eventually diminish the need for the architect. In order to maintain the integrity of our profession, internships must teach and instill these values into developing architects.

Preparation for licensure through the Intern Development Program (IDP) must be promoted during the internship process. The IDP program helps to guide the internship process for the intern, the mentor and the supervisor. Whereas this program provides a detailed and helpful outline as to the knowledge level needed for licensure, it lacks in its consistency. I believe that the program would be most beneficial if there was a national standard set. This in turn would allow for greater reciprocity to architects who desire to take on a project outside of their state of licensing and give interns who are working towards this goal the opportunity to move around and experience other areas of the county, increasing their knowledge and understanding of the whole of architecture.

Without the internships I have experienced over the past seven years, I would not have found my passion for architecture. The proper internship helps the developing professional to learn, grow and become an asset to their employer. Eventually, we will achieve our goal of becoming licensed architects. With this, we will become mentors ourselves and continue the process of guiding the growth of the profession through future generations of architects.