#035 - Shadia Jaramillo, AIA,Well AP, NCARB - I just stumbled into it!

Welcome to our podcast. If you're new to our podcast, the podcast was created by two architect that felt they needed to share their experience and hardships not only in our profession but in life and family.

On today's episode, we invited Shadia Jaramillo, a licensed Architect in the State of Florida. Graduated from University of Arkansas and works at Goodwyn Mills Cawood (GMC). She tells us how she stumbled into architecture and how life has been since graduation until now. Associate of the Year!

Grab a seat and some coffee, and take a few minutes to join us in our podcast.

If you guys have any questions or comments, please reach out to us at our Facebook pages or via email. 

Transcript

Audio file

 
Podcast #35 - Shadia Jaramillo - Architect.mp3
 

Transcript

 
00:00:05 Speaker 1

Welcome to the T ^2 dad's Brown Bag podcast. Here's your host, Kyle Baker and Dieter Burrell.

00:00:16 Speaker 2

So let me say this correctly again, Shadi.

00:00:22 Speaker 2

Sharia Sharia Jeremiah is with us today. Thank you. Sharia for for joining us on our podcast. And I just wanted to give you a big congratulations for getting the associated of the year from the AA and.

00:00:38 Speaker 3

Appreciate it.

00:00:39 Speaker 2

I always kind of bring my guest.

00:00:42 Speaker 2

To the podcast and this sort of being a series of just like introducing people as to how they got involved in architecture and where are they now. So you know, it's like if you could tell us your story, what kind of trigger do you just? Hey, I think this is going to be a fantastic career or it just you kind of just stumbled into.

00:01:02 Speaker 3

So I kind of just stumble into it, really. I mean, I since I was really small, I always wanted to be a doctor for some reason there are no doctors in my family. Well, now there are. There is who's my sister. But I up to 12th grade. I really wanted to be a doctor.

00:01:21 Speaker 3

Wanted to be a plastic surgeon and things happen and I had a class. It was a business class and we had to like develop this program and like make a model of a home.

00:01:35 Speaker 3

And we had to like rattle the circuits and put little light bulbs in this house. And my dad really helped me and I started thinking, well, like maybe this is something that I do want to consider and growing up, I watch Extreme Makeover Home Edition, which is the show that I really loved.

00:01:56 Speaker 3

And what I loved about it was like how they, like, were helping families through architecture and like giving them the opportunity to have the spaces that they needed.

00:02:06 Speaker 3

And so I don't know. I just like it. Something switched in me and I I decided to pursue architecture.

00:02:13 Speaker 2

That's nice. What school did you go to?

00:02:16 Speaker 3

I went to the Faye Jones School of Architecture at the University of Arkansas.

00:02:21 Speaker 2

Oh, wow, so, Oh my gosh, I I would have thought you may have been, you know, and I.

00:02:26 Speaker 2

Guess it's kind of.

00:02:27 Speaker 2

Just me being from Miami and and having friends in California, I would. I would have thought you were. You would have.

00:02:34 Speaker 2

More in like South, you know you.

00:02:36 Speaker 3

Yeah, more more of a Latin American community, I guess, but it was quite the opposite.

00:02:36 Speaker 2

Would have gone to.

00:02:43 Speaker 3

But it was.

00:02:43 Speaker 3

Great. I loved that. I I loved living in Fayetteville, which is where the campus is, and there's like a very big international community just because we have so many international students at EU of A and it it was a great experience. I learned a lot and I was able to meet people from all over the world.

00:03:02 Speaker 3

Which was really incredible.

00:03:05 Speaker 2

Was it was it. Uh, did you have any like horror stories with certain professors, or was it really?

00:03:10 Speaker 2

A good experience.

00:03:12 Speaker 3

No horror stories. I really had a a great experience. I had a lot of professors that became my mentors and I don't know. I have horror stories about about being a resident assistant though that's that's a conversation for another time.

00:03:28 Speaker 2

That'd be another podcast. You know what's funny is like when I when I talk to people from the University of Florida, that's where I.

00:03:35 Speaker 2

They're from. They always kind of have horror stories of of a professor tearing their models and saying, look, listen, if you just took this apart and just they just rip into their model and then leave it there. And I think this is much better than what you had before.

00:03:46 Speaker 3

I did have. I did have that I had, like professors mark my drawings when they were pinned up and stuff, but I I never took it in a bad way it it was like constructive criticism. I I would say I think the hardest part of our architecture school was really the culture.

00:04:04 Speaker 3

And it it somehow directly translates to the profession where everybody's like working extra hours and it it feels like you have to be there. And I think that that was the most difficult part. And and that's why I pursue becoming an RA because I second year, I just felt like.

00:04:23 Speaker 3

I I can't do this for five years. Being in studio 24 hours with the same people.

00:04:29 Speaker 3

All day long, I really needed a balance and I needed to, like, learn how to how to really manage my time. And I still pulled all nighters, even though I I became an RA, but I was able to meet people outside of architecture, which is important. I mean networking is important.

00:04:45 Speaker 3

We collaborate with other disciplines, so it was a really great opportunity to have to become a resident assistant and be able to experience something completely different and develop my leadership skills and have all the training that they do.

00:05:00 Speaker 3

So it it was really amazing.

00:05:02 Speaker 2

That's really good. I think for some of the people that are listening out there and you're young and you're thinking, you know, architecture might be one of those.

00:05:12 Speaker 2

Careers I might be interested in there is that, you know, balance of like trying to learn how to manage your time.

00:05:20 Speaker 2

And then knowing that there's times that.

00:05:23 Speaker 2

It don't doesn't matter how much you balance it, you're gonna have to put in.

00:05:26 Speaker 2

Those late nights.

00:05:28 Speaker 3

Yeah, I I think that's a difficult part and it's definitely a learning curve that I'm still on.

00:05:35 Speaker 2

I think we all are.

00:05:35 Speaker 3

Trying to limit my.

00:05:36 Speaker 3

Time and asking questions and how much is too much and you know, like confidence. I I feel like what I see from architects that have a lot of experience obviously I just got licensed this year.

00:05:48 Speaker 3

But what I see is that whenever that like confidence switch flips.

00:05:53 Speaker 3

That's when you know it. It becomes easier. I'm trying to get there.

00:05:58 Speaker 2

Here I got a question for you because this came up in another conversation with a buddy of mine from Connecticut.

00:06:04 Speaker 2

Once you got licensed and this could be one of those things that you still kind of like in the middle of.

00:06:09 Speaker 2

Did you feel like you kind of now you were being treated to the to the big boys table after you got licensed or or or was it a good transition like you were still you had a good team around you like leadership wise, is this really what kind of sets that?

00:06:23 Speaker 3

Yeah, I mean, you know, I work at Good Windmill scale.

00:06:27 Speaker 3

I I honestly like, didn't really feel that much different. I mean, I think my bosses and my coworkers always treated me like someone that's competent, you know, and hopefully someone as someone that like either knows what they're doing or is trying to learn to know what they're doing. So I I mean, of course, there's that.

00:06:46 Speaker 3

You know, line where like you've crossed the line. You're like now one of us licensed.

00:06:51 Speaker 3

Architects so that.

00:06:52 Speaker 3

Feels really nice because it does like validate all the work that you've done up to this point and you know, finally you got it done and everybody's happy for you.

00:07:02 Speaker 3

But I I don't think that from one day to another, you know, something is gonna change. It's not something that grand that you we all as we are studying we'll think. Oh my gosh once I get licensed. You know that's it but it's really it's it's really not it's you continue to learn you continue to become a better.

00:07:23 Speaker 3

Architect and you know we're we're all in that transition of trying to figure out what we want to do and.

00:07:30 Speaker 3

Maybe like something that we're finding things that we're passionate about now that we're done studying because that's something else. It takes so much time. But to answer your question, I I don't think I I felt that way.

00:07:43 Speaker 2

That's good. That's good. I I felt in other offices and while I was there as.

00:07:51 Speaker 2

An intern I.

00:07:52 Speaker 2

Could see the behavior.

00:07:55 Speaker 2

If you weren't a licensed architect, you kind of weren't brought up to the meetings. You were kind of invited sometimes, but even though you could be managing projects and never kind of felt like you belong there in some form of fashion, they always kind of like either talk down to you or just.

00:08:16 Speaker 2

They were so slightly you had that feeling like you couldn't say a word because.

00:08:20 Speaker 2

It really didn't mean a.

00:08:21 Speaker 2

Lot so, but it's a cultural thing. I think every office has a culture that's.

00:08:27 Speaker 2

Either it's inherited by the previous architect leadership.

00:08:34 Speaker 2

And or you just have good leaders that keep pushing that same approach and saying, hey, we're all kind of working towards the same goal. We're.

00:08:42 Speaker 2

All doing things together.

00:08:44 Speaker 3

That happening, but I think like if.

00:08:48 Speaker 3

If someone is leading an office and obviously I don't have you know, I don't have experience in doing so, but as someone that was at the bottom of the ladder.

00:08:57 Speaker 3

Or, you know, you would hope that like, they would want to invest in you because at the end of the day, you're part of part of the pipeline, like all those people that are in leadership right now, they're going to retire and they want to play someone that's going to.

00:09:10 Speaker 3

Learn the skills.

00:09:12 Speaker 3

That's going to learn from them. That's going to have all the tools and resources that they need to become the next leader of the office.

00:09:19 Speaker 3

And if they don't do that, then they're just wasting their time. You know, they're just wasting their resources. So you would hope that they would think that way, that would say.

00:09:29 Speaker 2

Yeah, that's good.

00:09:29 Speaker 2

So you graduated. You didn't. I don't think you said the year.

00:09:32 Speaker 2

You graduated at.

00:09:34 Speaker 3

2018 five years ago.

00:09:37 Speaker 2

OK, OK. So five years ago then you got license, how was the struggle to get licensed and you had to go through the MDP program and all that kind of stuff?

00:09:46 Speaker 3

No cold aches B.

00:09:48 Speaker 2

Ohh, it's cold. Yeah, that's right. It's cold.

00:09:50 Speaker 3

Yeah, they've changed it. But yeah, I had to go through all of that. I didn't really do an internship. I mean, I'm originally from Panama, so I didn't really get to do an internship here in the states. I did an internship back home, so I didn't really start it acquiring hours.

00:10:04 Speaker 3

Up until I graduated and got my first job, so I finished with my hours. I think in two years or something like that, maybe 2 1/2 really quickly and then I didn't start taking tests until the end of 2019. So November. So it took me like about three years.

00:10:13

Oh wow.

00:10:25 Speaker 2

Yeah, I don't know if you heard Curtis's podcast. He did it.

00:10:29 Speaker 2

In six months.

00:10:31 Speaker 3

Yeah, that's incredible. There's a lot of people out there that, like, do get them done really fast and I think, you know, like these tests, they're not difficult as we all like while we're in that journey, we're thinking, ohh, I will never pass this test because I keep on failing it and whatnot. But.

00:10:50 Speaker 3

I think it's all in our heads and you know, we all struggle with different things. Obviously, English is my second language. So for me, like reading the questions and understanding them properly was really key.

00:11:02 Speaker 3

And then you know, we're good at some topics better than others and we just kind of have to balance that and find the study methods that really work for us.

00:11:13 Speaker 3

So I I did have a bunch of fails, but you know failure is the first attempt in learning, so it is.

00:11:21 Speaker 3

What it is?

00:11:22 Speaker 2

I'm with. I'm with you. I and I even went to the Doctor cause I said, doctor, there's there's gotta be something.

00:11:29 Speaker 2

Come with me.

00:11:31 Speaker 2

I don't understand why I can you know. It's like I I need. I need. I need drugs. I said it's like and it's like, well, hold on a second, you know, cause I was thinking that I keep. I keep hearing people.

00:11:40 Speaker 2

Say get some.

00:11:41 Speaker 2

Focused medicine or something that and she says it was a nurse practitioner, she says, why don't we run a? Why don't we figure out if you have like?

00:11:50 Speaker 2

A sleep disorder.

00:11:52 Speaker 2

And this is for everybody that's listening out there. It's like I, you know, I go to the grocery store, my wife, my wife, tells me to go pick up 3, three or four things. I show up. I only remember one or two because I'm distracted by everything else, and I forget. So I used to use tricks to, like, send me a text and that way I won't miss anything.

00:12:12 Speaker 2

And I just keep wondering, it's like, Oh my gosh, it's like, why is my memory so just foggy?

00:12:18 Speaker 2

And so I went in and and did because I was thinking.

00:12:20 Speaker 2

This guy be.

00:12:21 Speaker 2

Something wrong with me? So we did the test and it comes back. I got I was borderline sleep apnea. So. So they went ahead and.

00:12:28 Speaker 2

Put me in the machine.

00:12:30 Speaker 2

And and behold, I had my first night's sleep.

00:12:34 Speaker 2

In a long time.

00:12:36 Speaker 2

I felt like I was like I didn't feel my body. I was so dead in that one sleep.

00:12:42 Speaker 2

That I felt I couldn't feel like my arms. I had to look down and see if my arms were attached to my body and then start picking them up one by one. I'm like, Oh my God, what a nice night because I didn't move that that position. I didn't move out of that position. It just, I guess I zonked in. It's incredible. But anybody is out there and they're struggling with testing because they have memory issues or anything.

00:13:02 Speaker 2

Think about that because I had.

00:13:05 Speaker 2

I mean, I could show you the.

00:13:06 Speaker 2

List and you'd be like, Oh my gosh, you were. You know, you were like batting like one out of 10, you know, it's like, cause I was really bad. And then after the.

00:13:17 Speaker 2

The machine I was 5050 like I was. OK. I got one, I got and then that's when the doctor said I think.

00:13:24 Speaker 2

You you just you were having a really bad time memorizing things because your brain was just not shutting down. It wasn't resting.

00:13:31 Speaker 3

They are not.

00:13:31 Speaker 3

Resting and that's important. I definitely recommend like for all those out there that are taking the.

00:13:37 Speaker 3

Just don't study the day before. Don't cram anything the day before. Really like rest. Well, decompress and like, try to set your brain and mind. And you know, if you seek mental everything to to focus on that next day and taking that test.

00:13:57 Speaker 2

Yeah, that's important. So you, you graduated and then the the fact that you're from Panama and you came here and this is your second language. I mean, so you have like, you have all these things stacked against you and then you kind of just persevered and and and now you're.

00:14:12 Speaker 2

You just got license. What beginning of the year? Just a few months ago, I think, right?

00:14:16 Speaker 3

A few months ago in April, officially in.

00:14:18 Speaker 2

April. Well, congratulations. You know, it's like welcome to the club.

00:14:24 Speaker 3

Thank you.

00:14:25 Speaker 2

Like they say, it doesn't get any better from this point forward. It just gets, you know, they just pour more work your way.

00:14:32 Speaker 3

Well, I guess in a lot of hope.

00:14:37 Speaker 2

And you guys you guys GMC do a fantastic project. So you're going to have fun looking back on the stuff that you guys are doing, so that that's a that's a great thing and.

00:14:48 Speaker 2

It looks like.

00:14:49 Speaker 2

You you kind of travel a lot from your your LinkedIn post it you've been kind of going to the place beginning awards.

00:14:56 Speaker 2

And you kind of like all over, can you?

00:15:00 Speaker 2

Tell us a.

00:15:00 Speaker 2

Little bit about that.

00:15:01 Speaker 3

Yeah, I'm I.

00:15:03 Speaker 3

I I'm very passionate about serving and and I think it comes from being an array.

00:15:09 Speaker 3

Because that's when I really, truly started, like discovered the power of serving and impacting others and learning from others. So as soon as I moved to Florida, I joined AIA and I just started kind of learning about it and I was pushed to run for.

00:15:28 Speaker 3

My first position as associate director in our local component and then it just started from there. And you know I've been trying to serve in the things that I'm passionate about, which is the next generation.

00:15:42 Speaker 3

And I recently went to Texas for the first time ever, and I spoke with one of my friends, Gabriella Vermeil. We actually went to school together. We spoke in the Austin Design Excellence Conference about the impact of serving your community or any organization and how to trail blaze the path.

00:16:02 Speaker 3

Head and I don't know, it's fun. I enjoy serving a lot. I just feel like I've been helped so much that I just want to give back. You know, as much as I can with the knowledge that I have.

00:16:14 Speaker 2

You know what I would I would recommend you with your background, is to participate with the N carb.

00:16:25 Speaker 2

To help them, they have so many different areas where they.

00:16:28 Speaker 3

Yeah, I was told about the think tank or something like that.

00:16:31 Speaker 2

Yeah, that, that, that's one. And they and they have a lot of small since you just got licensed.

00:16:37 Speaker 2

They're looking.

00:16:38 Speaker 2

Actively for people that just got licensed in a bunch of different testing, creating the test, reviewing the test I was part of that with Ankar and I I think I think with your background and the nice thing about serving with income and I don't know if they've kind of changed this, but they used to fly you out to like.

00:16:59 Speaker 2

Los Angeles, New York.

00:17:02 Speaker 2

Dallas, Atlanta, Washington DC I think Miami and they.

00:17:09 Speaker 2

Treat you. You know, it's like room and food for lunch, I think. And the evenings are you're pretty much free to do stuff and some people are actually seeing that they take extra days, you know, like.

00:17:23 Speaker 2

They take their spouses too. They go out and they enjoy the city. I mean, I went one time with Kristen to California, and while I was stuck in that in that anchor meeting the whole day.

00:17:37 Speaker 2

She was just gallivanting, you know, going to, you know, going to the museums and all this kind. And it must be.

00:17:42 Speaker 2

Nice, Kristen.

00:17:44 Speaker 3

Yeah, that's how it is for me. Every time I'm volunteering and I have to travel somewhere, you know, for us it's mainly work, but for the significant others, it's.

00:17:54 Speaker 3

Fun fun fun.

00:17:55 Speaker 2

It is.

00:17:56 Speaker 3

But yeah, there are a lot of opportunities.

00:17:58 Speaker 3

Out there. So if anyone's looking is passionate about a specific topic, you know they can find they can definitely find a group they can serve in.

00:18:07 Speaker 2

Well, that's awesome. Thank you for joining us and hopefully we can talk about some other things next time we we're we're back and we can do a nice recording in our podcast for everybody that's listening out there. Don't forget to subscribe and.

00:18:24 Speaker 2

See you see. See you guys. Next time. Thank you.

00:18:28 Speaker 3

You for having me theater.

00:18:38 Speaker 1

For listening to the.

00:18:38 Speaker 1

T ^2 dad's Brown bag podcast please subscribe on your favorite platform and we will talk to.

00:18:44 Speaker 1

You next time.