Why Internships Matter.

‍We are looking forward to our summer intern starting, not specifically because we need help, as our staff is able to handle our current workload. Additional help moving projects across the finish line, while always welcome, is rarely the goal behind hiring a summer intern. We see it as an opportunity to expose students to as much of what we do as landscape architects as possible within the three-month window they will be in the office. And because we are a very small firm and everyone is involved in all parts of a project, that view is very accessible and clear.

Grandville Project Site - 2025

I remember a time back in the early 2000’s when we were very busy with a project type that was drafting intensive, keeping two or three people glued to their computer screens working in AutoCAD for months. The interns hired to assist in that effort were very busy for 40 hours every week but left after the summer with little understanding of what we actually do on a daily basis because drafting, like design, meetings, coordination with vendors and subconsultants, etc. is just one part of most days in a small office. This model was not a fulfilling experience for the intern or the firm as the interns were rarely productive in terms of efficiency given their inexperience, often frustrated with learning the software, and usually pretty unmotivated by the end of the summer.

Today at OCBA, we make a concerted effort to involve our summer intern in project meetings, conversations about fees and construction budgets, site assessment and construction observation visits, creative brainstorming, and inter-office discussions focused on project issues, in addition to developing designs and producing documents. The majority of our daily work involves communication with clients, subconsultants, municipal and state agencies, and each other to bounce ideas, discuss challenges, and develop strategies, which just isn’t something that can be taught in school. Being privy to these activities gives interns a clear understanding of what it truly is to be a landscape architect and builds a layer of confidence as they begin their professional career. If an intern spends their summer staring at a computer screen and drafting in AutoCAD, both we and they have missed an opportunity to expose a student to the exciting and fulfilling day-to-day life inside a landscape architecture firm.

Woollam Preserve Site Tour - April 2023

A word from OCBA Summer 2023 Intern – Molly Page

I do not see much benefit in an internship where you are relinquished to the ‘CAD monkey’ position. My first internship was like that. I spent almost all my time sitting at my desk, hardly speaking to anyone. I didn’t even talk to my boss for the first several weeks of working there. In contrast, my internship at OCBA was incredibly eye-opening to the scope of this profession. On my first day as an intern, I attended a kickoff meeting for a project with the client. I didn’t have much, if anything, to add to the conversation, but it exposed me to a real-life situation that I would be a part of as a professional landscape architect. This trend continued throughout the entire internship, and by the end I knew exactly what it would be like to work for a firm like OCBA. I truly believe that I learned more about what it means to be a landscape architect during my internship than I had learned in my previous four years of college education. As I tell people now, your college classes teach you how to design, but your internship teaches you how to realistically implement those design skills and coordinate with other people to get real projects built.

If you are a landscape architecture student looking for an internship experience, we’d love to connect and share opportunities for upcoming summers.