Internship in conlusion-This paper is worth is 3 credit hours, well and the internship itself.

As a student in the Landscape Architecture program of the California Polytechnic State University, I have learned many things about myself. I can be an efficient worker. Creativity is a must in whatever I do. I can lose myself in hours of projects I enjoy. And I don’t like homework. While working in an internship with Kevin J. Small, a Landscape Architect and alumnus of Cal Poly, I learned that all these things about myself will provide for me some great opportunities.

In Santa Maria, California, the landscape architect, Kevin Small has an up and coming firm called PleinAire Design Group. This firm works in a wide variety of projects. They design places and spaces for the city of Santa Maria, Corporations, and private citizens, when there is time in the schedule. There are also several community service projects that they help with throughout the year. It was one of these projects that I contributed to during the summer of 2006.

The Santa Maria Valley Botanical Garden or SMVBG has been a goal of many citizens of Santa Maria for a number of years. They got together with PleinAire Design Group and me to create a conceptual design. The design was to be presented to a board at the Santa Maria Airport. As the airport is doing some service projects of their own, they are distributing some land to the public for uses such as a potential botanical garden. The first concept would be presented to the board for approval so that approximately 15 acres would be given to the SMVBG.

I worked on the design for the garden over the entire summer. I met with members of the board to get input and views of what the gardens should be. There were a number of times where my clients wanted things that were not actually possible in the places that they wanted them. But I suppose this is something that has to be dealt with in the job. We however accommodated and came up with a design we both agreed upon.

While working at the office, I worked on other projects as well. I helped Kevin with projects inside the office such as filing and correcting references. It’s amazing how much LA 353 helped me with the comprehension of such things. On my resume I had written that I knew Photoshop and was at least introduced to AutoCAD. This worried me. I came to find however that my knowledge of Photoshop far surpassed most of the employs in the office. I spent many days working on graphics and renderings. I helped improve office images and corrected seams in project spreads from magazines. My self-introduced AutoCAD abilities were even enough to be able to draft for the office.

The biggest lesson that I learned working this summer had to be about fear. I learned that just because people work in offices doesn’t mean that they are smarter than me. It doesn’t mean they know so much more than me. They have just been doing it longer. I know that whatever I do, it will take me awhile to acclimate myself to the working experience and the ups and downs of the job. But I also know, now, after my experience this summer, that I will enjoy this career, no matter which way it takes me.