reflect
Big Picture
My experience through Honors Design and Development was overall enjoyable. I had a rough time at the beginning trying to come up with an idea, but once I found something that allows me to do something with experiencing what an architect does as well as something that matches my values. Once I got passed the parts in my project where I was just researching for hours everyday I actually had a ton of fun with the designing of the houses and creating them in the 3D model. Even though there were times when I got frustrated with my project I loved how it turned out and I loved the experiences that this class and project gave.
The problem
The reason I picked this problem to tackle is because I genuinely believe that there is something that we can do to help the homeless people in need. I picked to focus on homelessness because when I went to California for my brothers lacrosse tournament I noticed when we were driving on the freeway there were tents set up along the fence of the freeway, I felt bad for all the people just trying to live in places that are unconventional. I also picked this problem because it connects with my values. I value helping people and I do it everyday whether that be little acts of kindness or something on a larger scale. I also wanted to do something along the lines of what architects do so I was able to make sure that is what I actually wanted to do with the rest of my life.
My solution
I believe that no project of this magnitude is ever complete, I do however love what I came up with, but I do wish I was able to add more things to my project as well. Overall I would say that I am proud of what I have created especially because I have never used Revit before and a huge part of my project was creating housing for Clean Slate Housing. I do believe that my solution could actually solve this problem because when I was talking to one of my groups at the Expo night she said she has worked for non-profits and higher up jobs as well and she made it clear that something like this could actually help people in need and she allowed me to believe that I created something that could actually help people. My project did slightly evolve over time by focusing more on the logistics of the non profit at times as well as the types of houses that I was going to create. I originally planned to have four different types of houses but then settled on two types of houses that are completely different from any of the four types I had planed for originally. This happened because I realized that not everyone can live in a basic 1 bed 2 bath house some people need everything on one level or some people want a little independence but for cheap. Did I finish? No I believe that a project that is this big is never done, but I also wish that I spent some more time learning Revit so I could add colors and make the houses look pretty. I also wish I could have came up with a more solid plan on how to fund the Clean Slate Housing project, even though I mainly focused on designing the houses that was apart of the logistics for the Clean Slate Housing and I just wish I could have had more time.
Expo
The Expo was an amazing experience it felt like a movie where all these kids are presenting their projects to people who actually care and took the time out of their day to come and talk to me about my project that I spent 6 months on, it just felt so-real. Something that went well during the Expo was the way that I explained my project I felt like I was hitting all of the talking point that I wanted to say and giving everyone all of the little details that seem little but are a huge part of my project as a whole. I liked how all of the people who approached me where people who seemed like they actually cared about what I had to say and how connected I felt with the people I talked to. Something that was challenging at the Expo was finding a good spot to stand where I could still show people what I wanted to on the little computer that I had and that would still allow me to face the people that I was talking to. I didn't like the layout of the the tables I felt like people got stuck in the front and the people who did go to the back for the VR didn't really talk to me because I was like in the middle of the lockers. What I would do differently is set up the tables differently so people wouldn't get stuck in the front, which would allow the people in the back to get more people and feel like they mattered too, I would also talk more about my process I just kinda talked about my final product and was relying on questions to talk about certain things, I should have just kept talking about all the little details that went into my project.
future
S.T.E.A.M Skills
Thought the 4 years that I have been apart of the S.T.E.A.M program I have developed several different skills, like:
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Problem Solving: When going though my project I ran into some problems especially with Revit which was partially because I have never used Revit before. When I came across those problems I just took a minute to think about was to solve it, and I even looked things up to help me figure out what to do next.
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Communication skills: When presenting my project to the professional reviewers, the tryout for the spotlight speakers, and at the expo were several times when I needed to have good communication skills so that the people I was talking to knew what I was trying to say/present.
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Creativity: When going about my project having a creative twist on things can help make my project more fun and exciting. As well as creating things that are unique to me.
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Time Management: When doing my project, having good time management skills helped to me to make sure that I got everything done that I wanted to get done before the Expo.
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Willingness to Learn New Things: At the beginning of my project I had realized that I was going to be using programs that I have used before, so I had to decide if I was willing learn new programs, and I love to learn new things especially if those things could help me in the future.
S.T.E.A.M Future
Over the last four years this experience has taught me that my future can be what ever I want it to be and that I can do what ever I set my mind to, and how to be successful in my career. In order to be successful I need to seek out opportunities to get experience in the career that I want to go into, I can do that by finding internships as well as doing everything in my classes to the best of my ability. If I find internships and do everything I can in my classes, it will allow me to have the skills that I need to "job ready" right out a college. Which will allow to have a successful career right out of college. After college I want to become an architect, and during my capstone project I tried to make sure my idea tied into that so I would be able to make sure that I actually wanted to be an architect. The S.T.E.A.M program has helped realize what I wanted to do with my life, the program allowed me to experience a ton of different parts of careers and allowed me to make an informed decision about which career I wanted to spend the rest of my life doing.