Our firm hosts an internship program every summer that provides students with hands-on experiences in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry. Throughout the program, the students’ experiences include project site visits, technical assignments, and networking opportunities. A major part of our summer intern experience is the group project, which asks interns to answer some of the biggest questions facing the AEC industry. Each group is led by an experienced staff member, who serves as a facilitator for the group’s research and presentation. The project experience gives students the opportunity to tackle real-world problems, collaborate with interns in other offices and disciplines across the U.S., and gain presentation skills in a corporate setting.

Reimagining the Future of Consumer Spaces

This year’s topic was to reimagine the future of consumer spaces in 2044. Every group was assigned one market segment to build their idea around, including community facilities, education, health and wellness, and justice. The intern project is a competition, where each group virtually presents their work to a panel of judges consisting of the firm’s market segment leaders and senior leadership. The winning group is selected by achieving the highest score on the rubric for their innovation and in-depth research on the future of consumer spaces. The winners are invited to present their project at a company-wide meeting led by our firm’s CEO, Donald E. Stone, Jr.

This year’s winners were the “Wellness Berries,” who focused their project on the health and wellness market segment. Their presentation enlightened the audience on the problems of emergency medical services’ safety, finances, and consumer complaints. They provided a solution to solve these challenges with the design of a theoretical product, the “Med Pod,” a revolutionary medical transportation apparatus. The Med Pod provides a safe medical transportation system that allows for quick and easy diagnoses and immediate care at a low cost. I was honored to be the facilitator of this group, with intern members including MaryGrace Gozzi, Owen Kammar, Owen Schnyder, Valerie McLaughlin, Victor Madrid, and Zarina Villacorte. 

Benefits to Interns

Our internship project builds upon learning experiences students receive at their universities by creating an opportunity to put learned methodologies into engineering solutions for real-world problems. Each team consisted of members from different disciplines, including engineering, architecture, and administrative functions. This allowed them to each contribute a unique perspective and approach toward the innovation of their assigned consumer space.

A major benefit of our internship program is industry-specific collaboration. The interns were challenged to utilize their discipline’s curriculum and harmoniously integrate it with others to achieve a singular goal." Darrin Ralph

This collaboration highlighted the necessity of teamwork and strategic problem solving in a multifaceted team. The Wellness Berries contributed their personal experiences in the medical arena, classroom knowledge, and professional experience to their approaches on research, assessed risk, engineered prototypes, and final design. Due to this, they were able to create space for each person to add value in way that materialized the goals of the group. 

Benefits to Facilitators

Facilitators also see great reward from serving their group. As a facilitator, I was able to further develop my leadership capabilities. Often, hands-on leadership is seen as the most effective approach, however, a hands-off method yielded the best results. The interns were able to explore their ideas together and see what did and did not work. In this, I was able to act as a coach when they reached a barrier or exhausted their strategies, rather than telling them how to think or what to produce. Due to this, they were able to learn more about their own skills, prospects, and individual ability within a team dynamic. I enjoyed helping to cultivate a space for them to recognize their potential and put it into action.

While facilitators can gain leadership experience, this program is also a great opportunity to be refreshed by creative, young minds. I have a passion for mentorship, and this program granted me the privilege of operating in that space. I will encourage my colleagues to consider being a facilitator when the opportunities arise for next year’s intern project.