Our biggest issue as a profession, as it relates to internship, has to do with an over appreciation of architecture's vertical business organization. There needs to be a change in the Intern Development Program (IDP) to allow for flexibility in assessment of credit for independent design experience prior to becoming a licensed professional.

The first time I was paid by a client for architectural services was the start of my internship with the profession. Regardless of whether I would get credit toward licensure, my summer would be filled with details--over 300 of them. This was an important time for me, and I needed to make money to support a wife and newborn. Though the pay was meager, it was apropos with my experience. During that summer, I learned my professor was not a licensed architect, but had a Doctorate in Education, a Masters in Psychology, and a Bachelor of Architecture. At the time, I was a little unclear about the exact titles of his degrees, and so began my interst in the horizontal.

My first 1099-MISC and appointment with an accountant further aided in understanding the horizontality of working for myself. Having technically worked as a freelancer that summer, and all summers subsequent, including working on three architecture books, a three-year term at an architecture firm, and now doing materials research and fabrication, I began to realize what it would take to engage myself with the profession.

The words still echo in my mind, "You are not an architect; you are a designer, not a professional". With a Bachelor degree in hand, high aspirations led me to taking on independent projects and starting my own design office. After evaluating the completion of my first major addition and a solid year of Masters-level architecture courses, this year has proven that getting down to the egoless nitty-gritty of architecture--out of the office and dirty--is much more educational than standing in line as an "inturn".

The elevator of our profession is very full; there's a long line of graduates selling themselves to jump ahead in line. Some of the constant complaints I hear at each level prior to licensure are the hours are long, the pay is little to none, and the mentorship is about as scarce as an old elevator concierge. I propose we offer an alternative path to licensure that rewards independence and promotes the horizontal at the early stages of education. To do so should embrace the internet as a tool to promote business mentorship and online courses for designers that lead to a mentor-approved certificate of project acceptance for IDP "independent design" work experience.

Flattening the vertical lines of internship to provide a horizontal route toward licensure infuses architecture with business savvy designers that point toward the horizon--balancing the hierarchical levels of corporate and high design offices with a highly motivated and independent "horizontal collective" that rides a dynamic change toward creative professionalism.