I am from Long Island, New York and grew up there until I went to University of Delaware, where I majored in Geography and minored in Art History. After graduating I wanted to do something different so I went to Costa Rica to get my TEFL certificate and teach English. I fell in love with teaching and traveling and I ended up traveling to Spain to teach English after Costa Rica. I lived in Spain for three years teaching, learning Spanish and traveling. I continued to teach English, but moved to South Korea to continue my journey and lived there for 3.5 years, until I decided to return to the U.S to pursue a Master's degree in Architecture. The question of why architecture can be answered because during my freshman year at the University of Delaware I took a class called Architecture in Global Context and I enrolled because it fulfilled the needed history requirement and it sounded interesting. After taking the class, I fell in love with architecture. The question of whether to transfer to an architecture school weighed heavily on my mind and I wasn’t sure what to do. It was too big of a decision for me to make at that point in my life. In the end, I decided to stay. I discovered Geography and how it’s the relationships between people and their environments and the human societies spread across it. After years of living abroad and traveling to countless countries, I’ve realized there is no better representation of people and their environment than the architecture they create. Architecture is the reflection and connection of people to their place. It is the reason why I love traveling and living abroad because I have the opportunity to experience and live this connection.
Upon graduation, my primary objective is to attain licensure as an architect. My decision to further my education by pursuing a graduate degree marked a profound shift in the direction of my life. All architecture master programs in architecture for someone without a undergraduate degree is 3.5-years and the choice did not come lightly. It was a conscious choice made with the goal to become an architect. In the long term, I envision fulfilling every architect's dream of establishing my own architectural firm. Idealistically, this is a goal I hope to achieve as it offers a greater degree of freedom and flexibility to design and construct in a way that holds personal significance to me.
I always try to have a book that I am reading strictly for pleasure, balancing books that I read about architecture. The last book I read for pleasure was called The Boys in the Boat, which is about the 1936 Olympic men’s rowing team and I finished it a few days ago.
I believe that every life experience serves as a preparation for what lies ahead. My time spent living abroad and traveling has provided the groundwork for certain habits that have greatly contributed to my success in graduate school. These experiences cultivated self-sufficiency and adaptability, enabling me to thrive in diverse environments and embrace alternative approaches to familiar tasks. Through these journeys, I've acquired the skill of adapting to the unpredictable and, more importantly, evolving through those transformative experiences.
Well the motivation is returning to graduate school as a 30-year old with a clear goal in mind. Knowing what you want to do helps to be motivated in the classes I am taking, especially when I love being in an educational enviornment
Really it just comes down to time management and learning how to balance the things that are important in your life. The requirements of what my classes ask for me get top priority, but so does taking the time to relax, hike, read or do something where I am not thinking about architecture. Sometimes it’s just about putting something off slightly because the thing about architecture projects is there is no limit to what you can produce and if you aren’t working on your project, you’re just deciding to put it off until the next day.
I’m most proud of returning to graduate school to study something that I knew I wanted to study. A lot of times people make excuses for why they can’t pursue something, live somewhere, or do any type of change in their life. Ultimately it comes down to taking action and doing whatever it is you want to do, no matter the unknown.
I think there is extreme value in it. Architecture is a discipline that already encompasses many fields. There’s something to learn from everyone and every discipline.
I don’t know what I’d be doing right now, but my plan after living in Korea (before COVID and before I decided I was going to go back for architecture) was to travel around south-east Asia for 10 months while I made my way to Australia, where I had planned to live for a year on their work visa. After that I was going to go to graduate school. So perhaps I’d be in graduate school, but I’d be in it for something else.
My favorite childhood toy was my Nintendo 64 and I still have it with me to this day. It’s in my apartment here in Blacksburg and I still play it! I can’t remember exactly when I got it, but I think it was for either a Christmas or birthday present when I was around 9 or 10 years old.
There are really three things that help me. One of my favorite things to do is run and when I am running consistently, I feel mentally relaxed. Another thing I like to do is to play Apex Legends and read. I can do both of these things for hours and when I am nothing exists outside the world of the video game or book.