Hi! I’v been on here for sometime now and decided to post my first thought, hoping to get some feedback and advice, I’ll try to be as clear and short as possible. I’m Ronald, 26, from New Jersey, US and currently living in New Zealand. By the time i head into any form of education aligned with what i want to do with my life, I’ll be 27. 

The passion and principle view I have for this industry is tightly correlated with environmentally responsible buildings e.g. variables from earthships, passive homes, bamboo construction, shipping container homes, straw-bale construction, earth bags (flexible form rammed earth construction) and so on.

I’v always been a huge believer that hands on experience is a better way to polish skills and knowledge in order to get a head start. In regards to environmentally responsible buildings, I am fortunate enough to have landed a small gig with a company called Solid Earth here in New Zealand. I need to expand and continue searching for environments I believe will help achieve my career goals. With these acquired experiences, I plan to build a portfolio illustrating projects I was able to be a part of. I’ll attend an academy founded by Michael Reynolds called Earthship Biotecture based in New Mexico this upcoming September. With them, I’ll obtain skills and knowledge I can apply to my future’s work. Although I have heard pros and cons of this academy, I feel adopting variables can work as a great advantage and tool. I’ll be joining another architectural academy founded by Elora Hardy called IBUKU based in Bali, Indonesia this upcoming August. They focus on bamboo construction which incorporates sustainability into the modern world. Of course, with this pandemic changes may occur.

I feel stuck with wanting to apply to a University for architecture or go into carpentry. My goal in life is to build schools/clinics in countries that are first to be affected from climate change disasters. To reduce the amount of time NGOs spend in these countries, which ends up being long term contributing to the poverty cycle. If you had to share some advice to someone in my age group with similar aspirations, what would you advise? thanks so much!