Camryn Focht – Architecture Internship

I am currently an intern at Grote Construction, located in Bowmansville, PA, owned by Scott Grote and Scott Focht. I have been familiar with Grote Construction for most of my life, considering my father is now a partner in the company and has been an employee at Grote construction for many years. I was interested in participating in an internship at Grote Construction because I have a strong interest in architecture, but I wanted to learn more before pursuing it post-secondary.

My regular duties at my internship thus far are regularly updating inventory in the warehouse, unloading and loading trucks, checking calculations and measurements for upcoming projects, and designing and ordering sport courts. As the cold months unravel, I’ll be dealing with sketching and designing homes, attending meetings with homeowners and business owners, and learning other architectural design tasks and operations. Currently, Grote construction is working on building a home for the owner of Redner’s Market. I have actively attended meetings with the homeowners and met with their numerous designers to discuss a wide variety of decisions needed to be made. These meetings were very informational because I was able to see and participate in the actual process of building and designing a home still as a high school student.

Additionally, I have faced many challenges while learning the ropes around the construction industry — such as learning completely new procedures, methods and vocabulary, meeting and working with new people, and accurately and efficiently achieving complex tasks. Although there are challenges, I am learning a lot of necessary knowledge in order to be successful in my future.

This internship has given me the confidence to pursue architecture design as a career post-secondary. Additionally, I’ve gained real-life experience and a head start that will benefit me when I study architecture in college.