Supporting Our Interns' Success

Our Dallas office is supporting high school students by giving them real world business experience in the architectural and engineering industry. Every year, we welcome students from Cristo Rey Dallas College Preparatory, a private, independent Catholic high school that serves Pleasant Grove, a large underserved neighborhood in southeastern Dallas. At Cristo Rey Dallas, 95 percent of its students will be the first in their families to go to college. The school is part of a larger Cristo Rey network of 33 schools in 22 states and provides a rigorous college prep curriculum with a unique-work study program, in which students earn 65 percent of the cost of education by working as interns.

As one of 138 Dallas companies participating in the Job Partner Program, we are supporting Cristo Rey students on their journeys through high school and helping to propel them on to college. Students are given opportunities to work with professionals in our design and engineering studios as well as our marketing and human resources teams. For many of the students, the internship is the first time they have ever stepped into a professional environment.

This spring and summer two of our interns celebrated big accomplishments. Julian Cardoso has been working at Page for three years and it is his dream to eventually become an architect. He is currently participating in a 6-week summer program at Cornell University’s Department of Architecture and will return to our offices in the fall. Kate Calvo has worked with us for two years and now is off to college this fall. Kate will be the first member of her family to go to college.

"My main goal, when I started my experience at Page was to learn as much as I could about architecture,” explains Julian. “However, through amazing mentors like Julie Losoya, Michele Northington and John Garcia, I was able to learn much more than just architecture: I learned professional skills that have prepared me not only for college but also for future jobs. Page has opened many great opportunities for me in the future: it has provided me with three years of real work experience at an architecture firm. Something completely amazing that has given me an advantage in the architecture field over other high school students. One of the many achievements that I was able to achieve because of Page was being admitted to the summer program at Cornell University. With the help of Ricardo Munoz, I was accepted into one of the top summer architecture programs in the country. I was not only accepted into the program, but I was also awarded the Cornell Future Architect Award, a scholarship that covers the total cost of attending the summer program. Thanks to Page I will continue to grow as a future architect!"

Kate credits Page and Cristo Rey Dallas for providing a spring board for her journey to Saint Louis University to study business in the fall. "Without this intern program at Page I would not be where I am now, the first in my family to go to college," explains Kate. "During the last two years at Page, I have met remarkable people like Julie Losoya, Kaitlin Jones and Alana Laine. Not many high schoolers can say that they work at in architecture firm and because I have been given this opportunity, I feel ready to step out into the real world."

We’re thrilled for both Julian and Kate and very proud to have had them as members of our team.