Ashley Fernando's Digital Portfolio

My Internship Project Explained

6/9/2015

When I first started to design a gymnasium, I didn't know where on the campus it would be built. I was strictly looking at how big it would need to be and where those dimensions fit on our campus and the "Master HTHCV Village Plans." I wasn't very optimistic about being able to fit a gym on our campus, so instead I started to dream about my dream gymnasium. I started to compile pictures of things I would have like to incorporate in my design. Below is my "Inspiration Board" of those pictures.

Inspiration Board

After gathering images and creating my inspiration board, I started to hand draft plans for my gymnasium. I was really struggling with the size of the building, so I asked my mentor if she knew how big the office was so I could visualize the scale of the gymnasium. Little did I know, the gymnasium is gigantic. My gym is located by the middle and elementary school where the lunch tables are currently located. If this was to get approved, I would propose the new lunch area to be where the existing basketball court is located. With this new gym, the basketball would be inside so there would not need to be a basketball court outside. This location is closer to the cafeteria but would need a way to block off or minimize the access to the cars. Below are a few pictures of my final products that I will be presenting at my Internship Transitional Presentation of Learning.

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Connections

6/4/2015

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As internship is coming to a close, I pause for a moment to take in this tremendous experience I am honored to have. Every single person in the room had their own unique qualities. Din was always caring; whether it was providing glue to finish my model or bringing in her laptop so that I can work on my SketchUp she was there for me. Jorge was always eager to help whenever I had an issue with SketchUp he would teach me the tricks I needed to know. Charity adored her work so much that when we went on the site visit she knew every detail from the nail on the baseboard to the gap in between the doors. Josh was always focused on his work, but never got mad at me when I asked if he could let me out of the parking lot or vise versa even though he had a lot of work to do. Kevin inspired me to keep an open mind when it comes to school. Perriann trusted me; even though I was only moving files from one drive to another, she gave a high school intern access to her email. Mathilda guided me through a typical site visit and assured me that I was on the right track. Per showed me that although your work can be tiresome, you can always push through the week to be able to go out for the weekend and make a bow and arrow. Lauren taught me to enjoy life; even if you broke a bone along the way. Ludivica looked at me like I mattered; maybe because I should have better grammar than her being that English is the only language that I speak but she trusted my word and was always happy to talk with me during our Starbucks run. Eric gave advice that I will never forget, "Tales of Trenches." John taught me to always look forward; especially to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo! Maxine pushed me to be the best intern I could be. She was always looking to improve my work and guide me throughout the process. One day I hope to inhabit every single one of those qualities.

I know that from just the short time that I have had at Studio E, I am leaving with a better understanding of not only architecture, but myself. I know that architecture is something I wish to pursue in life but by keeping my mind open, I will definitely look into other fields and career options. I am not 100% sure that I want to build strictly "this" type of building, but I do know that I want to have the same feeling that Charity had when she saw her dreams and visions of the building come to life.

For as long as I could remember, I have always been a very picky person. From a picky eater to a picky dream college. But I wish to change that. I wish to explore new options, visit colleges potentially out of my comfort zone, and overall become a more well rounded person. I plan on looking into things I could do over the summer and potentially getting another internship in the near future. No matter what I know I will cherish this moment for as long as I live.

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Internship Selfie

6/4/2015

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Phenomenal.

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My Work as an Intern

6/2/2015

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Most people probably think being able to manage their time is one of the hardest things to do. Throughout this internship I was never really given deadlines. They would just tell me to do something and never mention it again, assuming that I would be able to get the job done. This is something that I have struggled with in the past, but coming into this internship, I wasn't going to let that happen. Pushing on for the last couple of days, I know things will get harder. For the last couple of weeks I would get two to three tasks a week, but just in the last two days, Emane and I received four tasks from four different people.This week I will have to manage my time so that I can get all my work done in the next three days.

Along with completing the tasks, we need to finish our individual projects. We are designing our project in a program called SketchUp. Before coming to this internship, I had very minimal experience with it. Now I can finally say that I am getting there. Although there are so many more tricks I need to learn, I feel confident teaching others the basics of SketchUp.

All of my success at Studio E is dependent on the effort I put in. This is the same correlation to anything I wish to do in life. Whether it is my education or sports, I will only get out what I put in.

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Internship Journal: Self-advocacy

5/26/2015

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I feel that in order to succeed, you need to self-advocate for yourself. Whether it is asking for work, or asking for help, you are showing, not only to yourself, but to others that you are responsible, hardworking and dedicated. Coming into internship, we were told to expect being known as a high school intern with low expectations, but I feel that because I am continuing to self-advocate for myself and show just how much I can do, I will be known as a High Tech High Chula Vista intern who designed a gym for her high school that could be proposed to the school's Board of Directors.

After asking George for help on my SketchUp, I started to go into detail on my wall of windows. Maxine saw how well I was doing and even mentioned helping her edit a SketchUp that she has been working on for one of their projects. This would be a great opportunity for me to showcase what I have been learning and implementing it to the "real world." This is a real client and a real project that is in the process of getting approved. I think that none of this would have been possible without the help of George.

I also felt that in order to understand the size of my gym and the delicacy of the roof, I needed to see a scaled model of it. So I asked Maxine and we went into the basement to get materials. Below are a few pictures of my model so far.

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College and Career Connections

5/21/2015

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As of right now, my dream school and only school I wish to attend is Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. For college day last year, my advisory went to visit and I fell in love. Not only did it have the majors I am interested in, architecture, architectural engineering and engineering, it had plenty of bikes and modern buildings. Many architects have gone to Cal Poly SLO. Along with Eric Naslund and John Sheehan; the principals of Studio E Architects. Coming into this internship, I wanted to have an open mind to help me explore new possibilities that may come my way. As I was talking to one of my colleagues who has attended a school in Italy and another intern from Italy, they mentioned the difference between the schools in Italy and the US. I never thought about study abroad options but after talking to them, I want to do more research of my own. Architecture is architecture no matter where are, but depending on where you are, you can learn so much more. Every culture has their unique styles and being able to recognize their styles is something I want to learn more about. As I mentioned earlier, I really like Cal Poly SLO because of their modern buildings. This is a preference that I have noticed while visiting different campuses, but in order to be a good architect, I will have to be able to design things that the clients and community want. Not necessarily what I would want. An architect who was critiquing a Southwestern college student blatantly said, "This design is very selfish. Everything is what you would want and not what a Cancer Wellness Center visitor would want." That doesn't mean I have to like other styles, it just means I have to be able to appreciate and respect it. Now that I have seen what an architect does, I know this is the career I want to pursue.

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My Internship Project

5/19/2015

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A sketch of my ideas for the layout of the gym (scale = 1 box : 5 feet).

I am designing a gymnasium for the High Tech Chula Vista campus. Along with designing, I will be creating a SketchUp and hopefully a 3-D model that could be presented at my TPOL (Transitional Presentation of Learning). I am really excited to dive into this project because I pitched this idea to Maxine a couple of days before I started my internship experience. This project is something that I think the entire High Tech Chula Vista village can benefit from.

It has been tricky learning how to use SketchUp but because of this I am learning far more than ever before. I even had the courage to ask one of my colleagues, Jorge, for help when I didn't know how to build a wall full of windows. I just need to remember, "It is not all about the final product, but how I got there."

Today, we went to Southwestern college where a group of students presented their "Cancer Wellness Centers" in front of a group of pristine architects. Overlooking their lack of presenting skills, I noticed that every idea had a flaw. There was not one design that was perfect. So looking at my project, there will be a lot of things to refine. It will be a continues cycle of critiques and refining until my project will be decent enough. Also, every project had a design concept; from a fallen tree, to a candle to even the ripple from a drop of water. This is something I wish to keep in mind looking forward. "Why did I do this? What is the purpose? How will people act in here? How will people navigate in here? Why did I use this material? Why?"

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Mentor Interview

5/18/2015

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Maxine Ward lived in Northern Ireland before she moved to Scotland to study architecture at Edinburgh College of Art. She was later offered a scholarship to the University of Kansas which eventually brought her to Studio E Architects. Along with being a registered architect, Maxine was the President of the San Diego Architectural Foundation. You can almost always find Maxine hard at work behind her computer; answering conference calls, creating SketchUps, to even helping others. Even during lunch and our daily three o'clock Starbucks run, Maxine is at her desk working diligently to complete her work. At Studio E, everyone works together. Of all the projects I have looked through, there was not one project where someone did it all by themselves. Like High Tech, group work is very important. You not only need to be able to work with your colleagues at Studio E, but you also need to be able to work with anyone else who is assigned to the project.

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Internship Journal

5/14/2015

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So far, the majority of the work I have been doing is on the computer. Whether it was updating the San Diego Architectural Foundation website or moving folders, I was always learning new skills. How to edit a website, how to add events, to even extracting folders from a ".zip" file, but that is not what I have found to be the most beneficial skill yet.

For my project, I am designing a gymnasium for HTHCV. I know where I want to put it, what I want to include and the general layout of the gym. So now I just need to draw it. I am drawing this in on a computer program called Sketchup. With Sketchup, there are a lot of things to keep in mind. How many times you click on the item, which group it belongs to, what perspective you're looking in. It is all a learning process and I hope to keep in mind that it might not all be about my final product, but how I got there.

What was it that I struggled with?
How did I overcome it?
Did I ask for help?
Did I do it on my own?
What would I do differently?
How will I use this experience for my next project?

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