The SOM Women’s Initiative (SOMWI) hosted its sixth annual Winter Internship Week from January 10 to 13, 2017. Designed to give critical office exposure and mentorship to women pursuing careers in design, the program offers outstanding students in architecture, structural engineering, or related fields the opportunity to spend four days in an SOM office shadowing professionals in a range of different disciplines.
The interns hosted in each office were:
Chicago: Kateryna Romanova (Clemson University), Elisabeth Levy (Carnegie Mellon University), Carly Barborinas (University of Kentucky), Siwen Ma (Harvard University), Anastasia Vasileva (Central Scientific Research & Planning Institute, Ministry of Construction Russia), Julianne Crawford (Stanford University), Cynthia Suminto (University of Illinois), and Yuzhe Liu (Carnegie Mellon University)
New York: Emily Gruendel (University of Pennsylvania), Justine Flora (Barnard College), Rachel Flanagan (Virginia Tech), Sarah Pradel (McGill University), and Katherine Wojton (Princeton University)
Washington, D.C.: Ruiyi Chen (University of Pennsylvania) and Amelia Linde (University of Florida – Gainesville)
San Francisco: Yeganeh Shams (UC Berkeley), Natalia Hajduk (Southern Illinois University), Anlan Chen (UC Berkeley), Kelly Li (Carnegie Mellon University), Yu Zhang (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), and Julia Hogroian (UC Berkeley)
Los Angeles: Vivian Kuong (Harvard University)
In each office, students were paired with multiple mentors in a variety of departments including architecture, interior design, urban planning, management, and structural engineering. Their shadowing activities ranged from attending client meetings and sitting in on design charrettes to assisting with drawings and visiting construction sites. By the end of the immersive program, participants gained an understanding of the spectrum of roles and responsibilities at SOM.
SOM’s London and Shanghai offices will be hosting interns in April 2017.
The SOM Women’s Initiative, established in 2011, positions SOM as a leader in the design community by challenging barriers to gender equity and by fostering the retention and growth of women. SOMWI seeks to create an excellent, innovative, and sustainable workplace that reflects the firm’s commitment to enhancing the built environment.