What makes someone a successful designer or architect? How does one decide on what direction to take in their profession? Why am I in this major? These are all undoubtedly questions all architecture students have asked themselves at some point during the late nights, intense studios, or mind-boggling structures classes - but where do the answers lie? I once had a professor tell me, "I cannot make you a good architect, I can only give you the tools necessary - it's up to you how you put them to use".

I believe these answers come only with experience, learning the basic fundamentals of an architecture practice. Finding your way through a set of construction documents, being a part of brainstorming sessions, and interaction between clients and architects is what stirs the intensity we felt during our first school project. Through my experiences in school and internships, I have learned that your education alone isn't enough to prepare you for what you'll experience at your first "real" job.

My first internship experience with a small, Midwestern firm, helped me to learn something about every step an architect must take, from conceptual design to construction documents. Their projects were small in scale and focused on high-design residential and housing facilities. This last summer, however, I have been fortunate enough to work for a very well known English architect in their main office in London - an experience of a lifetime. The projects are larger and much more "designed". I feel as though I have been integrated directly into our project team, given responsibility and learned more about building techtonics than all four years of school combined.

The most important thing to take away from an internship is general architectural knowledge and working experience - something that is invaluable to our development. Having such varied experiences helps me to make educated decisions regarding my career path. This seems relatively basic, but is something that many students face when finding their way to a firm that doesn't match their personality or design philosophy. An internship should be about finding this "match".

In my experiences, and the reason for writing this essay, I have found that there should be internship development programs that help to transition students into the workplace and learn about their chosen profession. There is a direct benefit, both to the student and firm, to utilize the potential of a student. I feel that some may get discouraged during their first experience because it is incredibly different from school. We get into the workforce and need guidance and mentors - just as we need to get thrown into things to find out every aspect of a building project.

My hopes in "Designing Tomorrows Architect", is that there be discussions between students and professionals to help each group to understand what the other is expecting from an internship. I feel there are many areas that could be improved in the internship experience and hope that this conference will help to resolve some of them.