Three Key Moments it Took for Me to Find the Perfect Career in Architecture
Every child is exposed to architecture. Although not always direct, it is passively introduced through the homes in which they live, the schools where they learn and places they visit where people work. Most children have an idea of what they want to be when they grow up, because they usually choose careers they have been exposed to by people they love and respect. 
The first question I always get is, “How did you find out you wanted to be an architect?” Here is my short answer – the men in my family, the man with a ruler, and a teacher.
I was born in Heidelberg, Germany to two young parents who had just started their adult lives. My father was enlisted in the United States Army and served 11 years. From birth to the fourth grade, I only knew my father as an army soldier and my mother as a woman I wanted to be like. In 1991, we moved back home to E. St. Louis, Illinois. The transition from military to civilian life was full of adjustments. The best part was being surrounded by family – a HUGE family, cousins GALORE. They were like built in friends. Who needed friends at school when you had half of the neighborhood related to you? I also discovered ALL the men, on both sides of my family, were skilled carpenters, painters, and builders.The men in my family were entrepreneurs who used their skills to change the quality of space for people to live, learn and work. My maternal grandfather built my mom's childhood home from the ground up. My paternal grandfather was the first Black man join the Painters Union as an expert professional painter and served as the painter for E. St. Louis School District #189. My uncles have renovated more homes than can be counted. I never saw any drawings when my uncles worked, only the coolest flat pencils with no eraser.
Alta Sita Elementary School was the first school I attended in the United States. This would be the first time I had a teacher that looked like me. In the fifth grade, Mrs. Scott had a special guest who came to our class every now and then. He was a tall man that looked like my uncles. He wore jeans, a polo shirt, and a belt with a lot of tools and the cool flat pencils it. He taught us how to read a ruler. He explained how each line meant something and how to use the ruler to measure and compare. He also taught us how to draw common things with depth. We started off with simple items like a ball, a cup, a roll of toilet paper, and a cube. I loved when he came to our school.
Because of him and a few other teachers, I wanted to be a teacher too.
Mr. Shanafelt was my Industrial Arts teacher at Belleville West Junior High School. The classroom for this new subject was much different than other classrooms I learned in. The desks were much bigger like the science rooms but taller like the art rooms. They even opened to work like an easel. Our first project was to draw a block. It was a simple block, but we had to draw it using technical drafting views – top, front, and side. The blocks that we drew became more complex. We used rulers, triangles, and t-squares to draw.THIS WAS NOW MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE SUBJECT.Halfway through the quarter, Mr. Shanafelt told us we would be switching from mechanical drafting to architectural drafting. He showed us the floor plan, elevation, and roof plan of a house. He explained the similarities between the way we drew the blocks and the way we drew the house. Our first architectural drafting project was to design a house and draw it in the three views.I. WAS. IN. HEAVEN. My mind started making connections to the work I thought my uncles did. I said,
By the eighth grade, I figured out I wanted and needed to be an architect. My passion for architecture continued to grow. I went to high school at Belleville West High School where Mr. Riley was my drafting teacher. He went the extra mile to nurture me. He entered me into my first design competition, taught me how to draw on the computer, and helped me find and apply to architecture school. I will forever be grateful to the men in my family, the man with the ruler, Mr. Shanafelt, and Mr. Riley. There have been more along the way, but the seeds were planted by these gentlemen.