Women in Construction Week: Spotlight on Intern Adriana
To continue the celebration of Women in Construction Week 2018, we are excited to shine a spotlight on one of our female interns, Adriana Amaya. Born in El Salvador, Adriana and her family moved to the United States when she was 4 years old. Raised in Bowie, Maryland, she attended Bowie High School, graduating in the top 5% of her class. With a strong passion for architecture from an early age, Adriana spent many hours designing and building models for her classes, and sometimes just for fun.
During her first semester at Prince George’s Community College (PGCC), Adriana attended a career fair where she was encouraged to pursue an internship in construction. The construction industry could offer her invaluable experience and a new perspective on the structures she had drawn and designed on paper. Realizing how fulfilling this opportunity could prove to be, Adriana interviewed for an internship with Coakley & Williams Construction that same day and started working on site with us just a few days later.
“Each day I learn something new. The CWC team has been so great and each [person] has taken their time to explain every aspect of the project, the submittal process, RFI’s, and scheduling,” says Adriana. "I feel as though Construction has allowed me to see the different side in comparison to Architecture, which is something I know I have to consider soon as I rise up the ladder."
Adriana's internship on CWC’s most recent higher education project, the PGCC Culinary Arts Center, helped her understand the foundation of construction as well as the elements and time it takes to construct a building. The 22,000 sf facility provides students the opportunity to work in a realistic, professional setting with five state-of-the art instructional kitchens equipped with the latest kitchen equipment, offices, classroom space and culinary labs for students to be successful in learning every aspect of cooking. "It is really exciting to see the design come into place and how it will motivate students to join the culinary arts path."
Adriana will begin pursuing a Bachelor of Arts degree in Architecture when she transfers to the University of Maryland next spring. Adriana's experience with Coakley & Williams Construction will have a lasting impact on her career. "Construction has allowed me to see another side and I really like it, it feels nice to see what the Project Managers and Superintendents do and just being able to walk out on site and see the actual result is amazing."
We are proud of Adriana's accomplishments both in the classroom and on the job site and wish her great success in her construction career. We hope for the opportunity to work with her again in the future.
To learn more about internship opportunities at Coakley & Williams Construction, email jobs@coakleywilliams.com.
