5 Ways to set up internships that help your firm’s future

When architecture students talk about their summer internships, they rarely discuss the drawings they produced or the software they spent hours navigating. Instead, they excitedly share the moments when someone believed in them.

For Patricia Negrón Meléndez, such a moment came unexpectedly. During a summer internship at BRIC Architecture a few years ago, she mentioned offhand to a colleague that she wasn’t sure she could afford to attend the annual NOMA conference again that coming fall. Not long after, she said, a principal at her firm walked over to her desk and told her that firm leaders had decided to sponsor her attendance at the conference.

“I started crying. She started crying. It was a beautiful moment,” said Negrón Meléndez, who recently earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the Savannah College of Art and Design and will enter Tulane’s Master of Architecture program this fall. “It proved to me that they care about me and my professional development without me even asking for something.” 

Summer internships are not simply a rite of passage for architecture students; they are one of the profession’s most powerful pipeline development tools. Midway through the summer internship season, leaders of architecture student organizations shared the following insights into what firms can do to support young talent.

Market your firm and opportunities to students with intention

A student’s first impression of a design firm isn’t necessarily from a portfolio review or an interview. Often, it comes from what they see online or who they meet at a career fair. 

Aysha Shaikh is a Cal Poly Pomona architecture student and NCARB student licensing advisor, and for the last two summers, she has been the program director of architecture for the National Student Leadership Conference. Shaikh advises high school and college students on professional development, and to help guide them, she keeps an eye on many design companies’ social media profiles. 

“I've never seen a post from a firm saying something along the lines of, ‘We’re so excited for you to apply, we want you to learn and grow from this experience.’ Usually, the process is that you go to a firm website, look for the application, answer challenging questions that make you nervous, and then you either get an internship or you don’t,” said Shaikh, who has run programs to help students understand the application and interviewing process. Both Shaikh and Negrón Meléndez said that how a firm presents itself and communicates online is crucial for attracting talent. 

After listening to BRIC principal Karina Ruiz, AIA, talk during a NOMA conference panel and finding inspiration in seeing the fellow Latina as a leader in architecture, Negrón Meléndez looked up the firm. She was instantly sold on applying for an internship because BRIC’s website clearly stated commitments to diversity, inclusion, and a culture of learning.

“The intern page was all about learning experiences and much more about what they could contribute to my professional experience than what I could contribute to the firm. That really stood out,” said Negrón Meléndez, who returned to BRIC for a third summer this year. 

Career expos or “firm days” are often the first real touchpoint students have with architects. Shaikh said it’s important for firms to staff those events with people who are ready to welcome students into the fold, not those who make them feel like their value depends on already having certain skills. “How people interact with students during firm day sets the tone for not only their firm but the industry that students are entering,” Shaikh said. 

Start with clarity and set expectations

From the interview stage and into the early weeks of an internship, students will show up with more questions than answers: How does this place function? What will I be doing? How do I ask for help? What does success look like?

As executive director of the American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS), Kimberly Tuttle, AIA, provides support for students around the globe navigating architectural education and entering the industry. She has also overseen internship, fellowship, and licensure programs at Gensler and NCARB in addition to being a licensed architect who was once a summer intern and emerging professional practitioner herself. 

“This generation of students finished high school during COVID and are entering internships and the profession with different advantages and disadvantages related to socialization and professional experience,” Tuttle said. “That’s why it’s really important to get to know them individually and set expectations.” 

In Tuttle’s experience, students thrive when firms take time to explain how work moves through the office, how teams communicate, and what tools and systems interns will be expected to use. She recommends firms implement planned training on their standards, tools, and functional operations so that interns can jump into projects with solid footing. It’s also important “to make sure they know who their go-to people are for questions and how those people prefer to be communicated with,” Tuttle said. 

Luke Vastano, a recent Bachelor of Architecture graduate and soon-to-be Master of Urban Design student at Thomas Jefferson University, also sees the need for early transparency. As an AIAS leader, he has watched classmates and friends struggle when firms are vague about what summer internships will entail.

“Students are always finding themselves in the crossfire of the industry picking up new practices. Expectations for what skills students should possess and what technology knowledge they have are different every year,” said Vastano, who will serve as the 2026-2027 AIAS president. 

Vastano shared that he and members of his Gensler Summer Fellowship cohort built confidence by first learning the basics: how to communicate, how to ask for help, and how to navigate uncertainty. “Firms want us to know when to ask for help and know how to navigate a task,” Vastano said.

The practitioners guiding his fellowship team were very clear with students that they were expected to solve problems on their own, but the practitioners were still available to provide guidance in a structured way. “That approach has impacted how I lead at AIAS; it has impacted everything for me,” he said.

Make the experience about learning, not labor

Architecture students are eager to contribute at firms, and sometimes, staffing challenges or budgetary constraints can get in the way of a good experience. By providing high-quality internships with an emphasis on learning, firms stand a better chance at building a solid talent pipeline. “Firms should avoid looking at student interns as cheap labor. It is our responsibility as a profession to train them and encourage their growth,” Tuttle said.

Negrón Meléndez’s experience at BRIC Architecture exemplifies what an internship could be: real project exposure, weekly check-ins, and a peer group. Her internship stories have been the opposite of those she has heard from classmates who spent summers fetching coffee or doing repetitive tasks. 

“The whole point of internships is for students to grow and learn and gain skill sets that they wouldn't in school,” said Negrón Meléndez, who will serve as the 2026-2027 AIAS vice president. Being in a firm setting, she added, helped her learn how to advocate for herself in the workplace. 

Internships provide students with exposure to different aspects of architectural practice. Larger firms offer windows into a variety of practice areas and business units, and at smaller firms, students may be more likely to wear more hats and serve different functions on a team. Tailoring internship experiences to a firm’s strengths will maximize learning opportunities and help students determine what they want their post-graduation path to look like.

“There's a place for almost everyone in this profession. Sometimes, you just need some help finding it,” Tuttle said. She noted that AIAS offers programs and continues to develop new resources that help bridge the gap between education and practice to smoothen the transition, too.

Internships are also a key opportunity to educate students about licensure and help them gain the experience hours required for it. For many students, the process can feel opaque, according to Shaikh. She noted that architects who help students with logging hours and working within different AXP categories during internships can make the journey feel far more accessible.

Provide employees with time and resources for mentoring

Mentorship takes time, but time is billable for architects. When deadlines tighten, teaching and mentorship can fall through the cracks. But if firms want to adequately support student interns, they must adequately support their full-time employees in doing so.

While at Gensler, Tuttle managed the Summer Fellowship Program, which facilitates learning from a variety of practitioners and enables mentors to teach without feeling pressure to “get back to work.” She encourages firms to provide budget codes and hours each week for employee mentors as well as protocols for how to effectively spend that time.

“You need to provide overhead time for mentorship so that the time is carved out for both teaching and learning,” Tuttle said. “When students learn properly from a mentor who understands the firm’s systems and standards, they’re going to keep doing things the way that you like them to be done, and that makes collaboration and project work better for everyone.”
Vastano agrees that having mentors with dedicated time for guidance has been beneficial for his internship experience. He also said that simple mentorship moves go a long way with students. Invitations to lunch, site visits, and client meetings provide unparalleled professional development and help build lasting relationships. “The kind of connection ... keeps students engaged and keeps them wanting to come back,” Vastano said. 

Leverage the strengths of today’s students

Today’s architecture students bring a blend of lived experiences, curiosity, and technological know-how that is influencing how the profession evolves. Firms that foster these strengths will set themselves up with better teams and greater longevity. 

Negrón Meléndez sees empathy and inclusion as central to what she and her generation contribute to the industry. “I believe architecture exists to serve people and to serve the environment,” she said. “I feel like with all the opportunities I've had, I'm able to bring very different perspectives and curiosity into my work.”

And Vastano believes firms should fully embrace his generation’s penchant for emerging tools. The creativity and experimentation happening in academic settings, especially around AI, can only broaden firms’ depth of knowledge as they explore new tools themselves. 

“Our generation … has an underlying understanding of where technology is going,” Vastano said. “What architects can do is changing. And the people who are going to help push that conversation forward are students.” 

Kathleen M. O’Donnell is a freelance writer, editor, and communications strategist based in Washington, D.C. She is committed to telling stories that provide useful insights to architects and designers and highlight the impact of their work.