Asheville Design Center Intern: Elizabeth Bonham The Asheville Design Center (ADC) engages a diverse community of western North Carolina citizens in quality design and planning solutions for livable communities. Begun as a single project in 2006, the ADC assists communities with development and design, and is formed by volunteer designers, planners, and architects from the local community. It has broadened its goals to include design projects ranging from community gardens to interstate highways. I completed three projects while working with the ADC: the ADC Resource Library, the Design Centers Survey, and the Burton Street Gardening Plan. Volunteer architects and planners at ADC allowed me to explore my interests and taught me skills by example while affording me the freedom to take advantage of those opportunities. My focus at ADC became performing a site analysis, working on vacant lot reclamation strategies, and ultimately constructing a business plan for an urban farm in the Burton Street neighborhood. Working at the Design Center, I was exposed to the concept that land use and the physical structure of our environment are the central properties upon which behavior and systems relationships depend. This concept reinforced my understanding of design as key to sustainable living. The built environment is as relevant as the natural environment; humans will build the environment in which to live no matter what. Accordingly, in order to exist safely and sustainably within the natural world, the principles
behind creating a built environment should be a profound consideration in our practices. In order for humans to function, their structures should be designed to fit into nature rather than damage it. My work at the ADC cemented my understanding of design as a crucial element of social, environmental, and even economic sustainability. The projects I observed convinced me so deeply of the importance of design that I plan to focus my undergraduate thesis and postgraduate research on land use planning related to sustainable community development.
Montreat Conference Center Intern: John McDermott The town of Montreat has 2,500 acres dedicated as wilderness preserve, in the foothills leading to Mt. Mitchell. My internship with the Montreat Conference Center was an expansion of the summer Clubs Program. As Outdoor Educational Ranger I worked out of the Nature Center with the other rangers on staff. The Clubs Program at Montreat provides an opportunity for kids to take part in activities and classes throughout the summer. I taught and facilitated the Outdoor Education class, which would culminate with three, 3-day backpacking trips at the end of the summer, each with a different age group. As we got closer to the three-day trips, I placed more emphasis on building lessons for each of the essential elements needed for survival: shelter, food, water, and fire. The lessons emphasized familiarity with one’s immediate surroundings, being conscious of food and water, and awareness of what was growing and living in the area. We looked at ways to create shelter and fire with as much efficiency as possible, and how to make useful survival necessities out of every day materials. The three-day trips were incredible. I not only got to spend time in a beautiful, pristine wilderness, but led children to experience this type of adventure for the first time. The kids all came back thrilled, without major injuries or difficulties, and I blossomed as a leader and educator. Being an Outdoor Educational Ranger has been one of my dreams for a long time. It was incredible to see this manifest, and to step into this role. It was an inspirational learning process for me and taught me more in one summer than I had learned in one whole school year. I will always look back on this summer, learning about the immense forest of the Appalachians, and bringing this knowledge of the wilderness to the kids I taught. 4