Grad Spotlight – Arch Design 05-06- Julia Hu

News from Julia ‘06 – from the first graduating class of Architectural Design in CEE

Life after graduating from Architectural Design has been productive and practically driven. I am now a CEM coterm (Construction Engineering Management one year masters degree at Stanford) concentrating on sustainability and finance. This program allows you so much flexibility to sculpt your set of classes to prepare you for your goals. I hope to find that one great company that combines environmental consciousness, aesthetics, development, and social equity so that I can start out with an exciting job.

There are a couple of things that I am taking advantage of, and it might be helpful to you as well. Since we are still curious young students, it is the best time to seek out help and information from mentors. Sometimes, knowing that I had 3.5 years of architecture school ahead of me was a large enough safety net to not make myself the loud student. But after I decided on the CEM program, my calm state of mind changed to a determined one. These few months, I have been frenetically exploring the world of the built environment through interviewing everyone from Judy Corbett to a REIT analyst. I also got to volunteer as an intern for a nonprofit organization SPUR to help brainstorm how SF could incentivize green roofs.

There’s also a great program that I want to make a plug for. The Stanford Graduate Student Initiative has started putting out great summer programs (and free!) to bridge the disciplines. I got to join a group of Stanford PhDs and med school students in the Business School to learn about entrepreneurship for a month, and I participated in a weeklong “Radical Design Thinking” charrette to help me become a better designer. Much recommended. Good luck guys!

As of September 2007, Julia Hu has started working for Mogavero and Notestine Architects in Sacramento. Based on her job search goals stated above in which she sought to combine aesthetics, environmental consciousness,development, and social equity, it appears that Mogavero and Notestine http://www.mognot.com is a great choice because they are an architectural, planning, and development services firm.