Andrews University didn’t just teach me architecture, it taught me a way of thinking. As a kid I would fill notebooks with countless sketches of houses and people. At the time, I might not have understood the value of those drawings. However, now, at Andrews I’ve learned to use drawings as a powerful instrument for conveying ideas. It’s amazing to me how a small concept sketch can become the driving force for a building and an organizational system, all intended to create places for people to connect with one another and with the greater world. The sketch process starts out with a rough drawing and turns into hardline building drawings that we use to present a complex set of ideas. Process is something I understand to be invaluable. Parallel to this process of parti diagram to building is the life process the School of Architecture helped me with, from child artist, to student, and hopefully one day to architect; for this I am ever grateful.

Geselle Alfaro | AIAS President 2018-2019 | 4th Year | Los Angeles, CA