This summer Nido launched the Nido Summer Experience for High School students—a program through which students participated in a series of workshops before interning at local businesses to learn professional skills in research, marketing, operations, engineering, and more.
One student, Mishita, wrote about her experience with the program and what she learned during her internship at PL&A Arquitectos. Thank you to all of the Nido Summer Experience partners who helped develop real-world and professional skills in our students.
Nido Summer Experience Internship
By Mishita, High School Student
When I looked at my email and saw the Nido Summer Experience (NSE) notification, I knew I had to do the Architecture internship. It sounded too interesting for me not to do it, and I definitely wasn't disappointed. I had hoped that I would learn something about working in an office space with different people, and that I would finally know whether I really wanted to study and work in a career as challenging as Architecture. But then a thought struck me: what if I was completely useless in the office? After all, I knew nothing about the insides of a building and had absolutely no idea how to design the interiors or exteriors of anywhere! Then there was the fact that there were going to be adults that were going to judge me every step of the way and naturally, the thought intimidated me.
But as the day dawned, and I had to go to the first workshop that was supposed to prepare me for the internship, I forced myself to man up and entered the workplace of La Bicicleta Verde, where we had our first session. It was absolutely nothing like I expected. What I had imagined in the throes of my nervousness was a no-nonsense expert teaching us about Design Thinking—something I'd never even heard of—using a powerpoint presentation, a lecture, a strict glare, and a lot of complicated words. What I got was a wonderful, kind Spanish-speaking woman using lots of interactive activities to teach us about the different ways to solve problems in a workplace between fellow students and a translator. I was a lot more relaxed going into the other two workshops, and they were just as interesting as the first one. The instructors taught us about how things as casual as storytelling can be used to attract people to a business, and how to analyze a business using the FODA (Fortalezas, Oportunidades, Debilidades and Amenazas) system, but they also had many fun activities that helped us grasp the concepts better. I walked out of the third and last session feeling calm and confident until I realized that I had to go to the office the next day.
As I entered the cosy office my first day and met up with Pablo Luna, the architect who was working with us, and another Nido student working with us, I noticed that the office had a small number of staff, and they all seemed to be accustomed to each other. Everyone in the office turned out to be very welcoming and comfortable to be with: they were considerate that we didn't know quite as much as they did, and were just as nervous because this was their first time doing an internship with High School students. Pablo told us about the office, the people working in the office, the kind of projects that PL&A did, and the kind of study and work that went into Architecture. He eventually took us to one of his client meetings, and later, he tasked us with creating a proposal for the office space that the client wanted. Days flew by as we learned more and worked on the project as efficiently as possible, with Pablo checking in on us every evening before we left. Our efforts were rewarding as we presented what we did on the concluding day of the NSE, where all the students shared their experiences. While presenting what we did in the three weeks of the NSE, I realized that the NSE had taught me a lot more than I had bargained for. Apart from training me to work in an office, the NSE brought the importance of choosing the right career to my attention, while teaching me the value of basic etiquette, hard work and knowledge in a person's career, more than anything else. I learnt that the productivity of a person's work is important and that a person's career becomes a very prominent part of his/her life, which is why it is important that they are passionate about their work. In conclusion, the NSE is an experience that I would recommend to all Nido students as it helped me understand what my life could be like in a few years, and I hope that it can help someone else do the same.
