What’s been the hardest thing you’ve had to learn–again, informal education or in life?

The hardest thing I had to learn was math. Algebra, trigonometry, geometry just the subject period. I actually failed algebra my freshman year in high school. Like most people math isn’t really my subject and I find it very difficult. One of my weaknesses when it comes to school, I always just passed or failed my math class; however geometry sophomore year I got an 85 second semester. The second semester I wanted beats headphones, my aunt asked about my grades and I said my lowest grade was math. She said if I get over an 80 in geometry she’ll get it for me, so I communicated with my teacher a lot, asked for more help than usual, and asked for extra credit work. When it came to tests I studied and tried my best, I didn’t get an amazing grade on the test but the other work I did balance it out. The moral of the story although some things really aren’t for people anything is possible, when you work hard for it, put in the effort, and have motivation. Motivation shouldn’t be an object like mine was, your motivation should be seeing that grade after all that hard work, hard work pays off. Funny thing is I never got the beats because my mom said that shouldn’t be the reason to do good in class. 

How did you know college in general or City Tech specifically was the right choice for you? was it always?

I knew about college my whole life since young however I was always told I don’t need to go to college to be successful. My whole family always told me that but not in a bad way, they let it be known that it’s something that can be very helpful when wanting to pursue a career. I never really wanted to go to college, I never grew up wanting to be something like a doctor. I am still not sure of what I want, but since I don’t have a plan for the future the best thing for me to do was to go to college. I live in Brooklyn and the High School I went to was John Jay which is close to city tech I always knew about that school. Since I never really wanted to go to college so I had no intention of going away, all the schools I applied for were cuny. I got accepted to other schools but I picked this school because I saw more opportunities regarding majors, there are more majors here I’m willing to do and I see myself possibly enjoying as a career. This is also a 4 year I did not want to worry about transferring. I have to wait and see if this college was the right choice for me.

What is a moment, a person, or experience that led you to choose architecture as your major? or that has led you to any other choice you have made regarding your education?

I didn’t grow up wanting to be something, I didn’t grow up wanting to go to college. I choose this major because it’s something I can see myself in 10 years of being happy with this career. Being happy with your work makes work not even feel like work. This is something I’ll be proud to say when someone asks what I do for a living. I searched through all the majors in the school and picked three; marketing and management, business administration, and Architectural Technology. I did light research on all of them. What made me choose this major out of the other two? I can’t say I don’t really know. It’s an interesting subject to me and I want to learn, I want to see if this is for me you don’t know unless you try. I never drew seriously and never could really draw, but my drawings are coming out decent, better than expected. When I showed my dad my work so far he was astonished, he said “You never know what you are capable of” “Sky is the limit”.