Real life experience through practicums

Camryn Williamson and Timothy Rogers, Aledo High School's Career and Technical Education Coordinator, are shown with Camryn's student deisgn showcase project.

Angela Wilkinson

Williamson’s internship is through Fort Worth’s VLK Architects. She obtained the position by sending her resume to the company. She was invited to interview, take a tour, and meet the people in the interior design department, where she would later be working. 

Since August, Williamson has worked on projects, attended meetings with brand representatives or other interior designers, adjusted renderings, and perfected layouts on a set schedule. 

A few of the projects Williamson contributed to include picking tiles for GM Financial and choosing furniture for North Crowley High School. Williamson said she helps primarily with furniture and color choices on projects. She completes the projects by using design software like Autodesk Revit, AutoCAD, Adobe Photoshop, and Enscape for renderings. 

Through this real-life experience, Williamson has learned to navigate “the layout and the flow of the space… and make [all elements] look good together and work together,” she said. 

Towards the end of her internship with the firm, Williamson was assigned a project to design a restaurant and present it at the Student Design Showcase for the Fort Worth chapter of The American Institute of Architects (AIA). 

She designed a coffee shop with optimal study space by creating floor plans, picking furniture, customizing her project narrative, and doing a site plan of where she wanted the business and how it would affect the flow of traffic. 

Impressively, Williamson could have used Revit to design her coffee shop, but she hand-drew everything instead.  

At the beginning of Williamson’s internship, she was timid in speaking with others in the office and unsure of how to use all of the software. Now, she successfully aids in real projects, utilizing architectural design software, and has gained communication confidence. [The internship is] getting me ready for working at a real job,” said Williamson. “I am more open to talking to new people and asking anybody if they need help, and [I am] learning how to talk to clients that we're helping.”

In the Fall, Williamson will attend Baylor University to continue following her dream of becoming an interior designer. She hopes to design educational buildings because “I [want] to make it somewhere fun to learn and not just like four walls,” said Williamson.