Category: Emily

Scazma has taught me a lot throughout the weeks that I have worked in Vietnam. Being part of a small and close knit team has given me access to help and opportunities that I would have struggled to find elsewhere. I worked hard during my time, but I still believe that I have a lot to improve. I spent a lot of time in this company learning from my mistakes and practicing with online programs that I previously had little experience with. I liked that I could have my ideas listened to, and I was able to utilize them to create interior furniture for the team.

I was better at designing than I was with using AutoCAD at the beginning of the internship, but I improved greatly as I progressed. I am still able to grow in some technical programs, but I am happy with my progress so far. These skills that I have been able to acquire are vitally important for me in all future endeavors, whether that be school or career wise, so I know that I will continue to expand my expertise in these areas as I proceed through college and life. I am excited to see how my knowledge and skills can be used when I return to Gainesville.

My experience here can only enrich my design process and thinking as I make the transition from more abstract concepts in under division to concrete and real ones in my more advanced classes. This is one of the most important takeaways for me. I have had little experience or concept for concrete design idea before I entered this internship. My curriculum at UF encourages abstract and free concepts during the first two years of architecture school. This has left me very new to the idea of hotel design and creation. This was both a challenge and an opportunity for me as I navigated a completely fresh field of study. I was able to take on this task in a foreign country with relatively little discomfort, which is something that I am quite proud of myself for. I grew to love my coworkers and Ho Chi Minh City, so as my internship draws to a close I am able to look back on it and realize how much I will miss the experiences I have had and cherish the memories that I have made.

This internship has taught me a lot and allowed me to have a lot of design opportunities that I have not previously experienced in my school life. Through working with Scazma, I have been able to design a variety of things with a focus on interior aspects. Having this internship taught me that interior design and architecture go hand in hand, and many architects do both.

My favorite design that I have created happened in the first couple weeks of my internship. I was able to be in charge of designing the shelves of the reception desk in the Cosmos hotel. This beachside hotel in Phu Quoc will always hold a special place in my heart as one of the first real world design projects that I have been exposed to. I struggled with and enjoyed learning and working alongside my coworkers during this project. The shelves that I made were the first thing that I was able to see go through a presentation and be accepted. The sense of accomplishment that I felt when I heard that my boss and the rest of the office liked my idea was worth the effort of learning how to use Sketchup and AutoCad. I believe this is one of my most proud moments.

During my stay, I have had many proud and not-so-proud moments. I have been able to learn from my mistakes in a variety of ways. These moments have helped me learn a lot about a workplace and myself, and this has made me proud of myself. I have gained valuable skills in areas that I have not had much experience in, and that is one of the most valuable things that I can take away from this internship. One of my favorite parts of working with Scazma has to be that I was in a completely foreign environment where I would feel more comfortable making mistakes and learning from them.

Ho Chi Minh has let me embrace my discomfort in the workplace and role with it. The city has changed the way I view the world in the best way. Since living in such a large city, I was able to fully comprehend how much more is out there in the world. Living in a small city and Gainesville has blocked out a lot of excitement and liveliness from my life. Experiencing Ho Chi Minh has allowed me to see that I enjoy the bustle of a city, especially one in a completely different place than I am used to. Ho Chi Minh will always be special to me for showing me the environment that I eventually want to live in.

My time with Scazma has taught me a lot about the design industry. I have been able to learn more about some of the tasks that go into designing a hotel, and it has been very interesting to see how everything relates and builds up into a full concept. Most of what I have been able to observe are the beginning and middle stages of design in the AWAY Hotel in Hoi An and the final design stage in the COSMOS Hotel in Phu Quoc.

In my opinion, it is more interesting and exciting to observe the hotel design process in the beginning stages because it is very easy to propose new ideas and experiment with different options in terms of room, corridor, lighting, garden, and decorative designs. It is easy to observe someone’s creative side and see what kind of ideas my coworkers have during this stage of development. Seeing how people think differently is a fun and informative way to learn about how to work in a collaborative environment. The ability to collaborate on ideas is a vitally important skill for an architecture and design firm, so communication is key.

My office is a very close-knit community, but there are times when communication on a project could be improved. This causes some people to work on the same task without knowing. One way that the Scazma team is able to combat this issue is through being open. It was very refreshing to see that the office realized this problem and worked directly to combat it through our weekly meetings. I enjoy these because they allow us to stay on task and never wonder what our job is. Having these meetings allows the team to work efficiently and happily with transparency of responsibilities. My coworkers and I get along very well and it allows me to feel at home in the office. I enjoy the opportunity to make friends with my colleagues, which is a huge priority for me in a workspace.

I have had the opportunity to become closer with one of the other interns in my office. Earlier this week we even went ice skating at the nearby mall after work! This was a pretty unforgettable moment for me. I was able to introduce to him to some of my friends who are also in the internship program at UF and other schools. It is always super fun to mix cultures and see people from all over the world interact together. We all had a lot of fun at a traditional Vietnamese food place, and then hit the ice to cool down after a long day on the job.

Working at SCAZMA has taught me a lot about the field of design and all that goes into a project. It has been a very stressful and rewarding experience that I am very thankful for. I am able to design and experiment with real results, and it feels good to have my ideas considered and in some cases used in the hotel plans.

The biggest challenge that I have experienced while working at SCAZMA is also the best part about it. Having the freedom to experiment and design is very stressful and exciting at the same time since I am so new to this area of study. My education at UF so far has been very abstract, so applying what I know to the real world has been more difficult than I originally expected. Sometimes I feel as though I am in over my head, but this is not a bad thing because it means that I will be able to grow from this experience.

For these next couple of weeks, my task is to design a lighting plan for the AWAY hotel. I am inexperienced with this job, but I am working on it with all of my passion, as the SCAZMA team would say. It helps that I have a supportive and friendly staff that works alongside me. I was able to bond with my coworkers this week through attending a lighting expo in order to learn my about my current role in the design process and through a heartfelt going away party for one of the coworkers that made an effort to make me feel welcome on the first day. Having these experiences allows me to gain confidence and comfort in the company, which is also achieved through our daily group lunches.

The food is always very good, but the real star of the show is the tea. It tastes amazing and I believe that I may have a bit of an addiction to it. It also helps that it is blissfully free, a rarity in Ho Chi Minh. I have also found that I am in love with watermelon drinks in Vietnam. They are always super fresh and delicious with a taste that is truly unmatched in the United States. Food is vitally important to the Vietnamese culture, so I have had a chance to try countless dishes. I have yet to find my favorite, but I love experimenting! Some of my favorite adventurous choices include spiny fish, eel fish, and even frog! My next goal is to eat a snail, and I refuse to leave without at least a taste.

These past three weeks of work have been highly rewarding and exhausting. I have learned a lot about a design environment and all that goes into the process of creating a building. I’ve been very surprised and delighted by the involvement that architects have in the interior design aspects of each project. I find the interior of a building to be just as important as the exterior, so being able to aid with this step in the creation of the COSMOS and AWAY hotels has been very exciting. I hope that I will be able to see some of the final touches of COSMOS being completed in the next four weeks while AWAY starts to pick up.

This past week I was able to help with setting up some plans for COSMOS and create a second lighting option for a corridor in the AWAY project. I am hoping to work more on AWAY once COSMOS goes into the final detail plans since it is a newer project. These next four weeks should see it develop rapidly, and I hope to help in any way that I can.

The environment in my workplace makes it quite easy to communicate and get tasks from my coworkers. They are very friendly and understanding of my struggles and questions. It is s positive and joking space full of diversity. It is the perfect workplace for me! My supervisor is friendly and kind as well. She spends most of her time in her private office or away with meetings, but she is easy to talk to when it is necessary. This positive workplace relationship leaves me excited to come to work and learn more about architecture and interior design. This internship has been very educational for me, and I believe that I now have vital skills that I did not have previously.

Ho Chi Minh City is vastly different than in the United States, so the lessons that I have learned here are a little different than what I would know in the US. I have learned to better appreciate the differences in culture and language of the people around me. I am in an international district, so I can see and learn from people who come from a wide array of backgrounds. This is not always the case in the places that I’ve had residence in back in the US. This can come through a willingness to try new food or learning how to communicate with coworkers or other citizens who don’t know English. These experiences are fun and refreshing, because it shows that no matter where one might come from, people are still people and you can form positive relationships in no traditional ways.

My SCAZMA internship has been picking up recently as a new senior architect was hired for the AWAY Hotel project. I was able to meet my boss who is the CEO of the Vietnam and Cambodia branches of the company. She is a very high energy and friendly individual. She travels back and forth to Cambodia and Vietnam on an almost weekly basis. She oversees all projects and can run two companies quite efficiently.

My team in Vietnam deals mainly with interior design aspects of the projects with some help on exterior reinforcements. I can help with the design concepts in a variety of ways. It has been very exciting to create design concepts while learning different architecture software. This week I was able to conduct some research on rain shutters and help find a suitable design to allow for protection from rain whilst not obstructing the view or air flow into the outdoor sections of the hotel. I am also currently working on AutoCAD plans and elevations of the guest rooms in the hotel. I am particularly happy with this job because it is allowing me to learn more about a vital skill for my field. The elevations are also giving me some creative freedom with designing the views of the room from different viewpoints. After starting this assignment, my excitement for working in the company has been increasing each day. I feel more and more welcomed every day that I work, and my confidence in in my ability to take on projects has also grown.

SCAZMA is a very good small company to start in, everyone is very friendly and welcoming. I really enjoy the group lunches we do; it helps the office feel more like a family as we work our long hours together. As I spend more time with them, we can become more friendly and casual with each other, which is a very significant workplace experience for me. I find most of my experiences to be interesting and fun, but the one that sticks for me happened at work. When talking to some of the people in my office bout Vietnamese words that I knew, one of the other interns asked if I wanted a Vietnamese name. He said I could be Ly with an accent leading up on the y, and we proceeded to laugh and perform various hand gestures for me to get the pronunciation correct. This led to others joining in and getting Vietnamese names. I enjoyed this experience particularly because it helped me gain more confidence to communicate more with the people who didn’t know English as well. By the end of the day we were sharing song recommendations and laughing about the particulars of the showers, toilet paper rolls, and toilet hoses. This experience left me feeling very lighthearted and comfortable in my workspace despite being in a completely foreign country.

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Starting SCAZMA this past week was a very cool experience. I have been helping the design team with some interior design aspects of an island beach hotel. I have had a change to design a library space, a corridor to connect a kitchen with a lounge room, and some doors in my first week of work. It has been a very rewarding and tiring experience. I am going through an adjustment period to the long hours, but the work is keeping my interest. It’s only been a week, but so far my experience has proven that I am in the right major.

SCAZMA’s idea of architecture is in line with mine as well. Their interest in incorporating conceptual ideas into the design process of a building that is exciting and creative. I feel included in their design ideas, and my coworkers are very open to my suggestions and thoughts on the project. Having their approval on my work keeps me motivated to do well. The work environment is also perfect for me. It is a small company with international influence. Many of my coworkers are able to speak English and are super friendly. They mainly consist of French and Vietnamese people and they range from 21-40 years of age. I was able to go to dinner with them after work during the first week and we all regularly get lunch together. Having this friendly atmosphere helps productivity and makes the long hours fly by. I prefer an office where people can relax and play music during their work, and this office is a perfect example of it. This uplifting work environment is making me excited for the weeks to come, and for the new experiences that I will learn.

I have not met my supervisor yet, she has been in Cambodia for a business trip for the past week. I am excited to meet her this next week to learn more about the newest project that SCAZMA is working on. This is my first architecture internship, so I am ready to learn about and master how to use online software and work on projects in a foreign city. Vietnam has been an adventure so far, so I can only look foreword to everything that this internship will bring.

The activity that captivated me the most during the cultural week was the floating water market in the Mekong Delta. It was so intriguing and uplifting to see so many people selling their wares on a boat. The first boat that came up to ours was small and sold traditional iced and hot Vietnamese coffee. Watching a random gondola style boat hook up to us and start passing out the beverages kindled my excitement for adventure. I was able to see how friendly everyone was as we purchased various fruits and even boarded a pineapple boat to take some photos. The food was all fresh and the people were all passionate about the experience. I was able to gain more insight on how a culture lived its daily life in order to get food and also see the personalities of the locals through this market experience.

I found Vietnam to be a very different experience than in the US. It was different than what I expected, but I didn’t receive a huge culture shock. The most interesting and obvious differences for me were the city traffic and the electrical wires. There are ten million scooters in Saigon, and that makes crossing the street an eternally amusing and exciting endeavor. I have yet to take a scooter Grab, which is an app similar to Uber, but that bucket list item will definitely outshine any driving experience I’ve had on campus at UF. The electrical wires peak my interest as well because they show the rapid development of the country in a short period of time. They look so different than in the States. Most of the time there are only a few power lines visible in the road for the US, but in Saigon, there seems to be millions.

During the rest of the trip, I hope to learn more about the personality of people in Saigon and the little cultural nuances that make up their everyday interactions. I believe that many of these little things can only be learned through experience, and I hope that seeing more of the country will help me learn. I have already been able to discover that they take and give items with two hands. This trip is bound to teach me a lot and I am excited for everything that Vietnam has to offer.

During the pre-departure class in the Warrington School, I was able to learn more than I ever expected about the country of Vietnam. It is interesting to consider that Americans generally do not have a knowledge of Vietnam past the war that was fought over forty years ago. Vietnam is now an up and coming country with the South’s mega city named Ho Chi Mihn becoming a cultural hub. This city was renamed after the famous communist leader of the North who started the communist takeover for the purpose of a liberated and connected Vietnam. The original name of Ho Chi Mihn City is Saigon, and it is interesting to note that the majority of the southerners prefer it to be called that.

I was very surprised that most of the population in Vietnam doesn’t really care about or remember much of the Vietnam war, but this is probably due to the fact that the country’s population is so young that most didn’t even experience it. It is refreshing to see that they can thrive and have no resentment towards Americans when all we really know about the country is this old war.

I think it is interesting that the young people are similar to the U.S. in the way that they are starting to value starting up businesses. Many young Vietnamese are influenced to start their own companies, whether it be restaurants, coffee shops, fashion boutiques, or even construction companies. Both Americans and Vietnamese people have been more inclined to start a company through this culture of creating one’s own success. Despite being a country full of young people, Vietnam still holds many traditional values in high regard. The family is the epicenter of life for a Vietnamese person, and one must make every decision based on family. In the United states, one will pay more attention to the individual, and many Americans prefer to do things for themselves. This includes having their parents take care of themselves when they are old or putting them in a care-assisted facility whilst the Vietnamese children take care of them and have their parents live with them.

These cultural aspects may affect my time in Vietnam professionally as well. I will be more mindful with the interactions of people in the workplace, and also it will help me better understand the hierarchy of the office. Family is set up in a clear hierarchy of power in a traditional Vietnamese home, and this is the same in an office setting.