2023 Fall Practicum Student, Jade Maas
Our fall practicum student, Jade Maas, stopped by the Rowell Brokaw booth at the recent UO College of Design career fair.
The goal of the ten-week practicum is to give students direct work experience, mentorship, and exposure to different aspects of the profession. With Principal and Interiors Director Britni Jessup as her main mentor, Jade worked on a variety of tasks, including precedent studies and design options for the UO Knight Campus servery, signage ideas for the Downtown Athletic Club, rendering materials for Flock 13, submittals for a bank project, and more. She also went on numerous site visits, which spanned academic to corporate to housing projects, and attended many meetings, including client and consultant meetings and in-house Revit, EDI, and interview preparation meetings.
Jade's biggest takeaway from the practicum experience was “that architecture is not a solo profession but…a community with people to ask and work with.” Her greatest surprise was how much architects snack (!) and also “how different the profession is compared to studio in school but at the same time there were meetings I was able to listen to that had something I was able to relate back to school or I was able to apply something I learned in school in an activity I was helping Britni with.”
Her practicum experience ultimately helped reinforce what drew her to architecture in the first place: “I love how architecture is a profession that requires critical thinking and problem solving while allowing creativity to develop something that is both functional and beautiful.” Well said!