I can still remember sending out 12 different manila envelopes with a copy of my cover letter and portfolio spring semester of my 3rd year of architecture school at Virginia Tech. I had scoured the job postings on campus, and cold searched for firms in Washington D.C. and back home in Houston. By the time spring break came around, I had not heard from anyone and resolved that I may not find a job that summer and would continue to work a campus student work program job. My first break came as I was boarding the plane home for spring break. I had landed an interview in Houston which was great. The only downside was that I wasn’t travelling with my portfolio – USB drives were not yet a thing and emailing or posting a resume to the web was still years away. I took the interview and mustered through it with nothing really to show except for what I had in my backpack when I traveled.

As the semester was ending, I received another call from a firm in Washington, D.C. one afternoon. They wanted to call me in for an interview the next morning. I packed my bags and called my aunt while I was driving from Blacksburg to Alexandria and asked her if I could stay the night. I took the interview the next morning, and again, it was a dud. On my way out the door I asked the guys that interviewed me if they knew of anyone else who might be hiring – I figured it couldn’t hurt to ask. The guy jotted down a number on his business card and handed it to me saying to call his contact.

I recall it being a Friday morning when I left my interview. I got back in my car and settled in for the long drive from Annandale down to Blacksburg. Once I got out of the city, I decided to give the number a call on the card – again, I figured it couldn’t hurt. I didn’t expect anyone to pick up, lets alone on the first ring. Caught off guard I found myself talking to the principal of a firm in Alexandria. I explained the situation, who had given me his number, and that I was looking for a job before I started school in Alexandria for the fall semester. To my astonishment, he asked me to come in on Saturday and have a talk with him. I immediately confirmed, called my aunt and asked to stay another night, and turned back around.

I realized I had no clothes – I only packed for one day – and quickly set about getting ready for the next morning. I got up early and headed into town and met at the office at 8:00 am or so. I started taking out my resume and portfolio and my interviewer told me set them aside. He just wanted to talk. We talked about where I was from, how I ended up in Blacksburg, where I was staying the previous night, and what my plans were for the fall semester. After about an hour or so we were getting to the end of the conversation, and he suddenly asked me when I could start. I was again taken by surprise. I didn’t really know what to say. I think I told him I could start the Monday after my finals. He laughed and said that was ambitious, and that taking a few days off after school wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. We agreed I would start a week later, and that I would be paid an astronomical $12 an hour.

That’s how I met Steve Gresham, Principal of the Alexandria office of Niles Bolton Associates. Just like that, I landed my first job in Architecture. I had no idea where I would live. I know my parents would be royally annoyed that I wasn’t coming home form college that summer. But I had a job.

I stumbled through working my first job that summer. My first day I didn’t have anything to do, so I played around in 3d Studio Max and made a few shapes and rendered them. I remember being asked to get paint samples for a project. So, not knowing any better, I took a few hours off and went to the local Sherwin Williams and had paint samples made. Yup, that happened. My project manager looked at me sideways like I was an idiot – which, to his credit, I was. I remember deleting the foundation slab plans I was working on, and the doubling down and accidentally deleted a few other files as well.

I had great mentors though that took the time to explain to me what I was supposed to be doing. And I eventually made it through the summer with much less collateral damage.  I worked part time through the next year while going to the Washington Alexandria Architecture Center. As the next summer was approaching, I walked into Steve’s office and told him I wanted to go home for the summer. It wasn’t that I didn’t like working for NBA, it was just that I was home sick – easy at that. Like déjà vu he wrote down a phone number and handed it to me on a business card and said to call an old co-worker of his that was working in Houston.

And again, just like déjà vu I ended up in an interview over spring break with Jon Prejean with Meeks + Partners. I walked into the interview with my portfolio and resume, and he didn’t look at them the entire time. We talked, and talked, and talked. At the end of the interview, and it was eerie at this point, he asked me when I could start. He said that if I could work for Steve, then I could work for him. And that’s how I ended up back in Houston.

The summer before my thesis year landed me at Ricondo & Associates, Inc. in Alexandria. I didn't want to do aviation work. I really just needed a job for my thesis year and a friend of a friend of a room mate got me in touch with Tom Simanivanh, PMP. I begrudgingly sent in my portfolio and landed an interview with Joseph Chang. Just like that I started the summer working in a cubicle learning about aircraft movements and terminal master planning. I love it. I loved it and couldn't get enough of it. As I got deeper and deeper into it, I realized that I could use SketchUp to create models and to support the overall simulation work that Joe and the rest of the team were making. It was like creating video games.

It was like playing video games, that is, until you had to write the report that went with it. And the excel spreadsheets that had the data. And then you had to combine those two into a presentation. I was terrible at it, and to his everlasting credit, Joe made sure I knew I was terrible at it. I was used to getting redlines on drawing sets to pick up. Getting redlines on a report was like going back to high school English class all over again. But like all other things in life, the more you do of it, the better you get at it. That is the summer I learned how to do Excel and how to write.

That last internship turned into my first full time job, and for the next few years I learned more about calculation, analysis, planning, and salesman ship then I ever cared for. Learning to love aviation work has been a cornerstone of my career over the years, and it all started as a last ditch attempt to find a summer job before I started my thesis.

When we founded Project Luong, the first few phone calls I made were to Joe and Chad Townsend, to thank them for all of the help they gave me at the beginning of my career, and how it has taken me to where I am today.

My first internship was over 16 years ago, but the events that led me to lading my first job and the subsequent series of events have shaped the career that I have today. Looking back on how I ended up where I did has taught me valuable lessons about how to interview candidates, how to engage interns, how to be (and fail to be) patient with interns. Most importantly, it has taught me how transformative internships can be for students.

When you look back on the tree of your career and see the winding paths that take you from branch to branch, and the connections that pull and push you from one direction to another – the internship is the very beginning of that journey. Architecture is a profession of lifetime learning, and as a practicing professional we have a duty and an obligation to the subsequent generation of architects. Internships are an extension of the formal education that every architect goes through, and in many ways, it teaches you valuable lessons and molds the kind of architect you will end up becoming.

After my summer in Houston, I ended up not going back to Niles Bolton Associates. Through my connections as the WAAC, I interviewed and landed my third internship with a small firm called Jon Hensley Architects. I remember the interview. A man and a woman in a small office at the end of the hall in a non-descript office building off of South Walter Reed Drive in Arlington. The office was…them. That’s it. And one other intern at the time. It was a huge change from NBA, and it paid better! On my first day of work I remember Jon Hensley offering me three choices of audio – NPR, Bryan Adams, or The Boss. I told him I didn’t know who or what any of those were and he looked at me like I had two heads.

That’s how it went. NPR for the first hour. Then a steady mix of the E Street Band and Bryan Adams, every day, non-stop. But, I got to work with Sunny and Jon and learn some of the most valuable lessons in how to draw in AutoCAD. Sunny was meticulous. I recall her, ever so gently, berating me on why my lines were so sloppy and how poorly my drawings printed. Jon would teach me how to detail, and in turn I showed him how to do framing plans in SketchUp to demonstrate how to move artwork around a custom home.

Some 15 years on, Jon and I still communicate regularly. We’ve talked about being small business owners, and about our kids, and how to put together good drawings sets. Some 15 years on, and my internship boss is still one of the best mentors I have ever had the pleasure of working with.

In our first year we decided to hire four interns at Project Luong. We have a first-year marketing major from the University of Texas, a third-year architecture student from UT as well, and a fifth year University of Houston architecture student as well. We also have a high school junior who wanted to spend a few days a week with us to see if architecture was the right career for her. Having so many interns seems like a huge burden for such a small firm – and it was. But what gives me immense pride is that having discussed this plan with our staff everyone was on board with bringing these kids on.

Each intern found their role on their projects and took part in every aspect of what our firm had to offer. We did weekly learning sessions on key points – from fire code, to sketching, and everything in between. We pushed everyone to get into NCARB to get their hours and tried to align tasks with the hours they needed to keep making progress.

We paid all of our interns. Paid internships, or the lack there of, is a huge sore spot within the profession. As a minority firm this is also something we are keenly aware of. College is expensive, and financial aid and student work are huge ways that minority students are supported through school. Paying a competitive wage to encourage students to take part in an internship instead of taking a potentially higher paying job on campus is critical to continuing to support the development of minorities in architecture. This summer we paid over $20,000 in wages to our interns and paid higher hourly wages than larger more established firms.

As a firm our commitment to our staff goes beyond just supporting our full-time employees. The lesson from my personal experience and our collective experience as a firm drives us to make real and lasting impacts on the interns we have today. Whether they come back in the future, or find themselves on another branch of their career tree, our hope is that the 12 weeks they spent at Project Luong will impart them with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in this profession

‍