As we are in the golden age of technology, we have moved away from the traditional way of doing things to more of a tech base way of doing things. My name is Carlos Villalva, and I have decided to enroll in the New York City College of Technology for their Architecture program. For most people, it would have taken them, a long time to decide what college to enter and what major they want to peruse. I already knew Architecture was the career me, before even choosing a college. The City Tech architect programs stand out from the rest of the CUNY College. There are many key points that motivated me to pick this major, for example, the wages, challenges, and having already some basic understanding of architecture. Above all, the one person that pushed me and drive me to pursue this career was my mechanical technology teacher.

What makes City Tech, Architectural program stands out from the rest of the CUNY Colleges? The Architectural Technology program is the only program of its kind in all of the CUNY College. The degree I want to get is the Bachelor of Technology in Architectural Technology, located on the school of Technology and Design. An individual like myself can get their associate degree in two years and their bachelor degree in 4 years. Whether you pursue an associated or bachelor degree is up to you, but regardless this program will prepare you for employment in the architectural field. According to the City Tech catalog,” student in this program have a greater opportunities in employment and in advanced education at the graduate level as a result of the base knowledge gained at City Tech.” (City Tech, 192) By receiving your degree, you would already have knowledge on construction documents, computer application, design and programmatic planning, architectural history and environment system. These degrees open a pathway of learning architecture and similar related fields. Us, the student would be fortunate to be taught by a professor, who are professional in Architecture, to develop core skills and knowledge on this field. City Tech has made this course easier for students like myself, by setting up requires courses that every student will need to take every semester. The require grade to pass every class is a “C”, but this shouldn’t be your goal when getting your degree. The 4-year degree can help prepare students to be more proficient with the 21st-century technologies, by teaching us programs that are used in architecture every day. They consist of architectural model, CAD drafter, architectural model maker, building department expeditor and many more. The two important things that make it worthwhile to go is that the student is given an opportunity to develop their own ideas and creativity through being active in many architecture projects and enabling students to qualify for their architectural registration exam, which if I pass, I’ll become a licensed architect. For many students, this is a great way of learning 21^st century architect programs and having the ability to get a license, at very low price instead of going to an expensive college.

An architect makes a good amount of money to support themselves and their necessity. According to the Bureau, the average architect makes about $73,000 yearly. (United States, 4) Everybody wants to make money, that’s a proven fact, but they do not want to work hard to get it. For me personally, I always perceive that the amount of money an individual makes weekly, determine how good they are in the field. What I mean by this is that, if you have experience and you are a world class architect, then it is only natural that you have the best wage in the field. While for the new upcoming architect, like myself, it’s only right to have a low wage, due to the fact that we are inexperienced. Then there are those individual, who want to get a better wage, without giving that hard work to get it.  The great thing that comes from being an architect is that we will receive raises, depending on how your company want to increase wages by. There are projects that require going places outside of the state or country to be complete, and your company will pay for it, without you even using your own money to go to those places. I’m not going to lie, I want money as well, but I want to earn the highest wage to be a representation of how good of an architect, I am.

There are multiple challenges that could mold an ordinary architect to become something special. Architects are required to be thinking at all times, seeing that an idea can pop out at any time. One of the challenges an architect faces is that even after you graduate with the highest degree, you’ll always be learning, no matter what. People who usually who have a master’s or higher degree would have a stubborn attitude that they do not need to learn anything more. It’s natural to feel that way, but it’s important to remember that architecture is a major that nobody will ever master because there’s always something new to learn. This challenge is not a big problem because I’m an open minded person and like being optimistic. Listening to my superior or professor’s idea, is the best method of learning, as well as hearing my fellow peers. The challenge that fascinates me and my own personal challenge is to build an iconic soccer stadium for a world class team like Real Madrid or national team. This is no easy task that I’ll face because you need to make the stadium itself be appealing for the fan and have it represent something big for the club. There are opportunities for me to achieve these goals, which is to be part of next upcoming FIFA World Cup, stadium designer, which they make the new stadium for the World Cup. The biggest and hardest challenge an architect is the life of an architect. The life of an architect, consist of the individual to be more anti-social, in order to be more focus on your drawing or project for a long period of time. Why is this the life of architect? Well, it’s like that because, in order to be a real architect, you would want to have your drawing or design to be the best it could be. For that to happen to require you to use your own time, outside of class or work to make sure its the best. That’s the sense of pride you have for your project. This single and one challenge is, what separate an architect and the average person. I personally adapted the life of an architect, without even knowing, because almost every day I stay in college until it closes to finish my project at the best it could be. This requires me to stay up all night without sleeping and get to college when it starts and leave when it ends. If you can handle this and accept it like me, then I believe architecture is the right career for you. These are the challenges I strive for as an architect and the personal challenge I want to face.

Whether we want to believe it or not, technology is now becoming a key part of life and on our society. Technology had affected every career in a positive way, especially architecture. When I enter college, I have already knew of two programs that architect use, which are AutoCAD and Revit, both that I am certified, but there are many more programs that are being used, today. Programs for a model design that I never heard of, are sketch up and rhino. Most of these programs aren’t only used by architects but in other major, such as civil engineering, mechanical engineering, and draftsman. Architect borrows programs from other careers, such as illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign to further improve their design, floor plans, and models to best it could be. You may be asking why bother using a computer when you can do it in real life? Well, since computer drafting has first release, it been a critical complement to most companies, which are used in their project, it has become increasingly used, versatile and efficient in this age of time. I personally used two programs in High School, and let me tell you that it was a wonderful experience. Having a simple multiple floor plan turns into a building by clicking the 3D option was mind blowing at the first time I did it. It gives a sense of pride in your work like you would feel in manual drafting. Even though we go closer to abandoning our roots of doing things, I would strongly recommend students to do manual drafting in order to understand the difference between computer drafting and manual drafting. Computer programs have a lot to do to beat the original way of drafting, but it’s important to note, how far it has gotten to it. Computer drafting is just strings of command put together to generate a building model of it. I was lucky to be exposed to these programs in my high school, but I’m more graceful who taught me the fundamental of these programs.

My high school mentor, Ms. Mulling, is a teacher, I would recommend all mechanical technology students in Thomas Edison to take. Her class is not a class to take too lightly, but she has this drive inside of her that pushes herself to make sure you pass her class with the highest grade possible. Many students felt that she was there to make their life harder, but she tried to show how the real world environment would work and she also tried to prepare us for it. Every day, I felt like she pushed me to my limit to help me find that passion that I’ll need in this major. Not only did she help me find my passion, she indirectly aided me to get my pride. Pride isn’t usually a bad thing because it is a standard that you put in your head to achieve. My pride and passion have affected my work greatly. I remember that I had a project due for my Building Tech 1 class, that wasn’t that hard, but I put the extra work into it because I knew that in order to be the best, I had to put the extra work. That is the mentally I had, not only had it affected that class, but also affected all my classes and me, personally. It was installed when, my teacher told me that I’m better than this and should never be lazy doing my work. One of these, when I’m not pack on work, I would like to visit her again, to ask for guidance and tips on architecture.

In conclusion, I would personally thank Ms. Mulling for helping guide me to pursue this major. I fully understand the challenge I would face in this major, and the challenge I have set myself to push me to follow my dreams. The money I would receive will be a representation of how good I am. Once, I receive my bachelor degree, I would like to celebrate it would Ms. Mullings, to show how much she impacted me not only as a student but as an individual that was lucky to have her as a mentor. The two things, that I would want to make as an architecture is to make a soccer stadium and a house for my parents to live in. Giving something back to the society, is what I want to do in any way, such as remodeling, constructing or designing a building in this city.

Work Cited

“Summary.” U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 8 Jan. 2014. Web. 09 Nov. 2015.

New York City College of Technology College catalog 2015-2016 (City Tech) New York: NewYork City Technology, 2015.PDF

William, Mitchell J. “BEYOND THE IVORY TOWER: Constructing Complexity in the Digital Age.” BEYOND THE IVORY TOWER: Constructing Complexity in the Digital Age. Science, 5 Mar. 2004. Web. 9 Nov. 2015.