Kayla Spruit, BAA (Interior Design), Class of 2010
Posted on Wednesday, March 30th, 2011
Kayla Spruit, a graduate BBA (Interior Design) Degree Program, class of 2010, did her Co-op at ndosarquitectura in Barcelona, Spain.
Whenever I was younger – in fact, still to this day, I hear people talking about places they wish to visit or things they care to see “someday”. It didn’t take me long to figure out that today was “someday” and instead of waiting for an opportunity to come along, I must make the opportunity happen.
I have been fortunate enough to know what I wanted to do career wise and where I wanted to do it, since I was little. I was determined to do my internship/co-op period for my Bachelor of Applied Arts Interior Design program internationally. I searched out numerous companies throughout the World – literally no objections to where – and was able to find a company to help me find a placement in Spain.
There was a slight hitch to my placement however – I needed to be able to converse with my fellow employees … in Spanish. Right off the bat, I was faced with a challenge to speak and understand Spanish. I decided to go over to Spain a month early, and with the help of morning classes I was able to pick up the language fairly quickly. The month early in Spain also enabled me to get to know and become more comfortable with the city and the people. With the patience and help of others, I was able to practice and develop my new language. Due to the location, I was also able to study famous architectural structures. Well-known architects’ Gaudi and Mies van der Rohe were two favourite architects of mine whose work continued to defy the possibilities of form and function within buildings.
I began working at Ndos Arquitectura at the beginning of September, and couldn’t have asked for a better work environment, fellow employees, and bosses. I was assigned to a fellow employee, Erika, as my mentor. The strong team environment helped build a quick relationship between myself and Erika, as well as the other fellow employees: Laura and Laura. Nearer to the end of my internship, two former employees re-joined our team, Nester and Pablo. My two bosses were Judith and Jose-Luis. We worked on numerous projects at one time, as each person had different assets he/she could bring to each project.
As my placement time continued, our team grew together with it. I was able to approach anyone and ask simple questions, and believe it or not, the opposite as well. Since none of the other employees spoke English as a first language, I was able to help translate between English computer programs and commands, as well as client and manufacturers requests. They, in turn, taught me shortcuts, design lessons, and Spanish language terms I had yet to learn. Rather than the language differences causing a barrier, we grasped it, accepted it and utilized it to our fullest advantage.
The intent of this internship is to learn in the workplace, in the real world, and I did just that. To give proof, for my first work task I was asked to design a reception desk pendent lamp for a hotel, in the Canarias Islands. This task alone had multiple tasks within it; I had to understand what the client was looking for through the description my boss and mentor gave me, sketch and design rough 3D models of the hanging lamp and then prove it could work. The final pendant lamp ending up being 4 metres long and 1.5 metres across with multiple shells and plays of light. It was not with my first attempt I came to this final design solution though. It was instead through multiple sketches, tweaking of 3D models, further discussions and critiques with my boss that we finally came to the conclusion.
The accomplishment and conclusion of that first task sums up my whole internship experience. You have to jump at an opportunity, put yourself out on a limb, believe in yourself, be able to accept criticism, and in the end, when “someday” comes, you will have learned and be ready for what is next.
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