Seaford Junior Shadows Architects in Career Exploration

With a dream of becoming an architect, Seaford High School junior Andrew Konik got a look into the profession of planning and designing buildings. In October, he was invited to attend shadow day at H2M, a Melville-based architectural and engineering firm. 

The four-hour event, with about 20 other students from Long Island, allowed him to gain insight into the field. During an icebreaker activity, he and a small group of peers did an engineering challenging to build a spaghetti tower that could hold a marshmallow at the top. Following “day in the life” presentations, an office tour and a pizza lunch, he then got to shadow one of H2M’s architects.

Andrew found out about the opportunity from his guidance counselor, Suzanne Cosenza. During his time at the H2M office, he learned about the firm’s past and current projects, getting to see blueprints, rendering and photos. There was also time for questions, in which Andrew asked about the daily responsibilities of an architect and the types of projects they work on.

“I got to see what I can do in the future, and now I’m even more interested in being an architect,” he said. “It was really fun and it was a whole new experience for me.”

Describing himself as “crafty and creative,” Andrew has been interested in architecture since eighth grade and said his specific interest is designing the outside of buildings. In the spring semester, he will take the high school’s Architectural Computer Aided Drawing class. 

Andrew, who attended Seaford Harbor Elementary School, in involved in several clubs at the high school, including Best Buddies, the Culture Club and Stage Crew. 

Principal Nicole Schnabel commended Andrew for taking advantage of an onsite experience to learn more about a prospective career.

“This is one of the most impactful ways to start making a connection to a career you might be interested in,” she said.