First steps to a dream: Makaela Hall 25′ at The Yellow Springs Dog Park

     

This is my first ever Co-op and the first step to making my dream job a reality. The organization’s mission is to provide a place where people can go and walk their dogs and let them play in an open space.  My role in this organization is to provide a shelter for them to sit and be sheltered from the sun, rain, and snow. I start my days out at 8 a.m. working in my office designing the shelter. I use the program Vectorworks to help aid in my design process of the shelter. I set goals for myself every day I step into my office to help keep me focused.

 

I’ve been preparing for this Co-op since the winter quarter by learning model making and how to use Vectorworks correctly. I can’t believe I learned all of this in a matter of almost 6 months. Every day I leave work and I feel so excited for the next day because I am doing things I love.  I am so happy that my designs will be built by the end of this quarter hopefully. I’ve been having meetings with Johnnie Burns, Pam Nicodemus, and Kylle Kelly to discuss my work and my Ideas. I am really scared of presenting, the only time I presented till now was for a grade, but this time I was presenting for myself and for my designs. I am always excited when they chose the design I am most excited about.

All my work in this Co-op fits my educational goals because I want to keep designing structures. I want to keep learning new skills on how to think about design and how to do it in a way that captures my ideas. This Co-op has given me skills and experience that will serve me well in my future internships and in graduate school. I want to go to graduate school to fully study to be an architect and I am sure that this Co-op will help with that.

 

 

I truly am grateful for this program because of how many first-year college students can say they designed and have a structure that will last decades.

As my first Co-op ever it was everything I could have dreamed of, I got to do what I love. This Co-op really affirmed my dream of wanting to be an architect and pursuing it. Every time I look at buildings I take them apart in my head and just figure out how they were designed. I have a newfound respect for architects, the amount of work it takes to design something is a lot and I have more knowledge of what really goes into it.  I am also glad to have done a local Co-op because I get to be around my friends and their support has helped tremendously.

Works cited :

Yellow Springs Dog Park, 12 May 2022, www.yellowspringsdogpark.org/.