Prompt: What specific experiences (honors or not) in the past year have had the most impact on your personal and professional trajectory? Articulate specific personal and/or professional goals for the next year.

 

My freshman year of college was undoubtedly full of new experiences. A new home, a new school, new people, new classes – very few things stayed consistent for me during my transition from high school to college student. I was an out-of-state student, diving headfirst into a new world without a familiar face. The experience, however, that upon reflection shaped my college experience from relationships to academics, was the time spent in my undergraduate architecture studio.

  

I came into my studio class completely blind – I had no clue what to expect. My high school experience was laid out for me; there were always wrong and right answers, a set deadline, a clear expectation. However, in DAAP, my concept of education was flipped on its head. All of a sudden, there weren’t grades, deadlines were loose, and you controlled most of the process. My studio mates and I were plunged into this new environment headfirst, and it was very much sink or swim. But by leaning on each other, and pushing one another to be better, our studio finished the year as unified as we had started – only one student had to drop for medical purposes. While in this family-like studio environment, full of very talented artists that are now my closest friends, I was able to achieve things and push the limits of my design abilities. If you showed me something I created in this past year as a senior in high school, I would have said that was way out of my league. The positive competition in my studio helped me to improve, to become a better designer, and helped me to make the Dean’s List both semesters.

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Not only did my studio form me into a better designer, I believe it helped me to become a more well-rounded individual. DAAP provides me with a plethora of different people – and I had the pleasure of meeting them all. I have friends across the world, friends from the other end of the political spectrum, friends with opposite religious beliefs. Yet I have learned to look past differences and see what binds us together, and how despite our differences, a good relationship can flourish. What binds us together is our humanity and our desire to better ourselves and our world through what we design. I look forward eagerly to the day when I can point at a building going by and say my good friend from college designed it. I have immense faith in what my friends and I can do for the world.

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In conclusion, through the academic experience I received and the friends I have made, my studio experience brought me intense joy. Charles Du Bos said, “Joy is but the sign that creative emotion is fulfilling its purpose.” I am so blessed to have found my purpose here in DAAP at the University of Cincinnati, and I cannot wait to continue to see what this extraordinary program has in store for me. Next year, I hope to continue to succeed in the DAAP program and increase my learning curve by participating in a challenging co-op, as well as continuing to make new friends and foster old friendships.