At an age when most girls are totally into playing with dolls, Monika Nowak knew she wanted to become an architect. \u201cI realized that there were more than just pretty pictures behind all the beautiful houses,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn addition to the design, I was very interested in all the technical aspects of a building,\u201d she continues. \u201cMy desire was to learn about all aspects of building construction, including design, construction management and the technology involved.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fast forward a couple of decades. Nowak, now a sophomore majoring in architectural technology at New York City College of Technology (City Tech), is one of seven students, out of 93 applicants from throughout New York State, to win the coveted 2009-2010 Vanguard Award, sponsored by the Career Options Institute.<\/p>\n
The award recognizes the accomplishments of outstanding secondary and post-secondary students, both male and female, who are enrolled in Career and Technical Education (CTE) Programs that are not traditional to their gender.<\/p>\n
In Nowak\u2019s case, architecture, still a male-dominated field, hooked her because \u201cwithout knowledge of the technical aspects of a building, we are unable to achieve successful design.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Nowak\u2019s path toward City Tech\u2019s architectural technology curriculum was neither smooth nor easy. A native of Poland, Nowak grew up in the city of Plock on the Vistula River, about 68 miles from Warsaw. She came to the U.S. for the first time at age 18 to visit her maternal grandmother who lived in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. This was just a vacation and she returned to Poland.<\/p>\n
But in 2000, when she was 25, she visited again. This time she decided to stay, even though her family, which included her parents and sister, were all living in Poland. The decision to leave them was daunting, but she found motivation for her decision in the \u201cbig differences between living in the U.S. and Poland.\u201d Most specifically, she appreciated \u201cthe cultural diversity and openness\u201d the U.S. offered. She also found Americans to be very helpful, positive and optimistic.<\/p>\n
Once here, Nowak supported herself as a babysitter for a Polish family and as a <\/strong>personal assistant for an American <\/strong>businesswoman. She also worked for a construction company and said of it, \u201cI liked this job so much that I knew it was time to advance.\u201d So, encouraged by her employer, she enrolled in some English classes at Teachers College, Columbia University, and also took accounting courses at City College.<\/p>\n She was now at a crossroads. Should she go to college?\u00a0 For a while she was helping her sister to pay for her schooling back in Poland. And when her sister completed her education, Nowak thought, \u201cIt is time to do something good for myself. I knew I could not advance and expand my knowledge and skills without going to college, especially since I was not going back to Poland.\u201d<\/p>\n Today, at 35, Nowak lives with her husband in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, holds down a full-time job as an assistant project manager at Milrose Consultants, a Manhattan expediter of documents and drawings for compliance with building code and zoning requirements, and has accrued 61 credits toward the bachelor of technology degree in architectural technology.<\/p>\n Since beginning her journey toward her degree, Nowak\u2019s family, especially her husband\u2019s parents, has been her greatest support. As she puts it, \u201cEveryone is very proud of me, which gives me motivation to go for what I like best.\u201d And Lia Dikigoropoulou, her architectural technology professor, describes her as \u201cone of the top students in our department. She is extremely focused, mature, dedicated, and performs very well.\u201d<\/p>\n With an eye toward the future, Nowak realizes that she has to be \u201cfamiliar with the newest materials and design trends, including sustainability design as this will have a big impact on the environment.\u201d\u00a0 She knows that a design project encompasses \u201cmore than just blueprints and drawings. It must also include specifications for materials, scheduling and means and methods of construction to assure the safety of the building.\u201d<\/p>\n Looking ahead, Nowak would like to work as an architect with a company that specializes in the restoration and renovation of existing New York City landmark buildings. She notes that this \u201cwould be the best way to use my technical and design skills.\u201d<\/p>\n In speaking about her architectural technology classes at City Tech, Nowak praises her professors as being a \u201cbig part of this [learning] process,\u201d with many of them providing \u201cgreat inspiration for my design projects.\u201d<\/p>\n Nowak knows that \u201cin architecture we have to wear many hats, like in real life. I think women can handle this juggling of responsibilities best as we often have to shift our priorities between family and career to make sure we keep both under control.\u201d<\/p>\n In addressing her choice of a nontraditional career as a female in architecture, she explains that \u201cnontraditional choices are important for the 21st century workplace as changes in society and gender roles are shifting.\u201c She emphasizes that \u201cwe should be allowed to do the job we like,\u201d and continues, \u201cPeople have different characters and skills, and thus can perform different types of work that are not necessarily gender specific.\u201d<\/p>\n Based on her very positive experience, she advises other students considering nontraditional careers to \u201cpursue your dream and choose a career you will be happy with.\u201d\u00a0 And in referring to the City Tech architectural technology program, she acknowledges that \u201cthis program opens so many possibilities for future work in the architect\u2019s office, building management and even in the construction field office.\u201d\u00a0 She concludes, \u201cThere is always space to grow; especially with the technology advancements that can help us to develop our skills.\u201d<\/p>\n New York City College of Technology (City Tech) of The City University of New York (CUNY) is the largest public college of technology in New York State. Located at 300 Jay Street in Downtown Brooklyn, the College enrolls 15,400 students in 60 baccalaureate, associate and specialized certificate programs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" At an age when most girls are totally into playing with dolls, Monika Nowak knew she wanted to become an architect. \u201cI realized that there were more than just pretty pictures behind all the beautiful houses,\u201d she says. \u201cIn addition to the design, I was very interested in all the technical aspects of a building,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4725,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-327442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4725"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327442\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}