What set me back.

In the early part of 2007, my husband (boyfriend at the time) was given an incredible opportunity to spend one year in Birmingham, AL in a very specialized fellowship program. He asked me to come with him, but I was not so sure at first. The thought of leaving New Orleans, my job, my friends, was frightening. On the other hand, the thought of having a long-distance relationship was unbearable. After all, I already had a long-distance relationship with all of my family. So when I found out that there was an architecture firm in Birmingham that also had an office in Sao Paulo, Brazil, I couldn’t resist. Getting a job at this firm was my conditional to moving away.

As one can imagine, I got the job. Within a couple of months, an a new work visa at hand, I packed my bags and moved to Birmingham, AL. The year that ensued was full of happenings: I got engaged, I got married, I became a LEED AP. In the midst of planning a wedding and a move back to Louisiana, preparing for the ARE exams just seemed too much of a burden. I could not wrap my head around that idea. Instead, I decided to take on the LEED AP exam. At that time, there were no LEED BD+C, LEED Homes, etc. LEED was still in its second version and there were just a couple of credentials one could choose: NC, New Construction or EB, Existing Building.  However, I remember that a change was imminent and I felt like that was the right time to take the exam before the big credentials rolled in, which would not only make the choice of which one to go with more difficult, but it would also mess up the guidelines I had just gotten my hands on.

Besides that, I was hearing more and more about how NCARB was infusing green practices questions into the ARE exams, so it just seemed more logical (and more attainable) to get LEED accredited before getting into the ARE. Although green practices were far from my immediate experience, the company I worked for at that time encouraged everyone to become LEED accredited. That encouragement (in the form of monetary compensation) and the reasons listed above certainly gave me a boost in confidence and I decided to take on that exam right away.

Little did I know the blow in confidence this exam would give me. It was way more difficult than I anticipated. As I said, I really didn’t have experience in the field and delved into it based mainly on a passion for doing things right (at least right for the environment) and the belief that it would help me with the ARE in the long run. Besides that, I had very little experience with standardized exams. I really only had taken the TOEFL and GRE exams several years earlier as a requirement to apply for graduate school in the U.S. I didn’t study for either of those two tests and although I did okay, I could have done a lot better had I prepared for them. So, this time, I decided to prepare for the LEED exam! And by prepare I meant reading the guidelines. What a big mistake. After a couple of fails, reading proved not to be enough preparation. I realized I had to memorize those credits. Every single one of those credits. Sure enough, after putting the right amount of time and effort, I became LEED AP late in 2007.

Becoming LEED accredited felt wonderful! It felt like an accomplishment in the middle of a very busy year. However, what would have become a boost in confidence for most people, it actually deviated my plan to obtain my architectural license in the following years. Those two failed exams crushed me and instilled a fear of standardized exams, and failure in general, that put my professional life in a halt for over 6 years.

 

 

For a foreign graduate, the path can be very discouraging.

The path to architeture licensure in the U.S. for a foreign graduate begins with the accreditation of your degree, which means a process that can last up to two years.

In my case, this process began back in early 2006. I was working in New Orleans in a new post-Katrina-nightmare era. A lot was being torn down and rebuilt. New Orleans needed workforce, especially those in the design/construction field. Too many people had moved away and were having too hard of a time coming back so soon.  New Orleans needed commitment from those who had returned. I like to think that New Orleans needed me.

Not only I was there, I was ready to work. My temporary, one-year training visa had been sponsored and upgrated to a work visa, which allowed me to legally stay and work in this country for another 5 years. So, in light of my new status, I decided to pursue my architecture license and, right away, created an NCARB record. While accruing IDP hours (at that time, one needed to complete IDP before sitting for the exams), I submitted all paperwork required for the EESA evaluation along with IDP hours from the beginning of 2005. Compiling and translating all of the syllabi were the most time consuming part of this whole process. Nevertheless, by the end of 2007 that evaluation was completed and my degree accredited! Through out those almost three years of working in the U.S. combined with my work time in Brazil, I was clear to start taking the exams!

However, what seemed to have gone smoothly, was an actual process. Dealing with this extra accreditation step and the number of appeals that followed (due to missed translations or misclassification of credits) can be very tedious and discouraging. Fortunately, I was eager to give back to New Orleans the commitment I was given with that new work visa. I was eager to contribute to the rebuilding of that great city. But a turn of event kept me from taking the ARE bull by the horns. It wasn’t until the beginning of 2014 that a muster the time and courage to face the ARE exams.