An Intern’s Reflection: My Seven Months at DG2 Design

July 31 marks the end of my time with DG2 Design. Working with the team was a wonderful experience, so I wanted to take this opportunity to reflect on my time.

I found DG2’s internship opportunity while looking for an internship to complete Kansas State’s internship requirements for my master’s degree. I had some friends who live around Eureka who told me about DG2 Design after they had previously interned with them.

I had heard nothing but positives about their time with DG2, so after further in-depth discussion of their experience, I decided to apply for the internship. Kristy got back to me right away, and we discussed what an internship would look like. Then, after a brief interview process, I secured the internship and moved out to the St Louis area from the Omaha area to start working.

My Time at DG2 Design

DG2 as an office was a wonderful place to work: It’s a smaller office, so I got the opportunity to really get to know my coworkers and get first-hand experiences and mentorship in a variety of fields.

I shared an office with Derek Don, a landscape designer, so I had plenty of opportunities to learn from him, but over the seven months I was with DG2, I had the chance to work with every member of the staff. There was a lot to learn from everyone in the office, and from site visits to drawing in CAD, my days were often packed to the brim with experiences to learn from or hone skills for.

Key Projects and Learning Experiences

Working on projects with DG2 has given me the opportunity to improve a lot of my skills, most notably in 3D modeling and Photoshop. The majority of my time in the office was spent working in SketchUp and CAD, but I also spent a significant amount of time working on sections and illustrative plans in Photoshop. I took this chance to just put my nose to the grindstone and work on projects, because they gave me the time to experiment and learn from real-world experiences in a way that I wouldn’t have had the chance to in school.

One of the projects I enjoyed working on the most was a small property in Door County, Wisconsin. The project involves creating a series of small cabins on private property that will be universally accessible and connected to a lake and surrounding nature via a network of paths.

This small project is part of an initiative spearheaded by Kristy DeGuire, PLA, president of DG2, as a personal project to create a short-term accessible vacation location in the region. Working on this project has been a fun challenge, as it involved striking a delicate balance between ideating designs and considering cost and accessibility, especially since Kristy and other team members were more familiar with the property than I was at the start.

It was a unique experience working on this project, as I was given free rein to create designs and investigate aspects of the site. Unlike a school project where I would be given strict guidelines, Kristy allowed me to explore and design however I wanted. It was somewhat challenging at the start to figure out where to begin, but it provided me with a unique opportunity to research and learn about a site without a professor’s oversight.

That region of Wisconsin is extremely interesting and has a rich history to draw from, so it was nice to be able to research that and draw my own conclusions and then present my discoveries to Kristy in a design. This project also challenged me to find things that I would have been provided with in school, such as identifying the site topography or researching Door County regulations. I had a lot to research, and it kept me very busy whenever work on other projects slowed down.

Impact on My Career Perspective

After working here for seven months, I would definitely say that DG2 has shaped my perspective on the profession. In school, I am up until unreasonable hours, constantly feeling on the edge of burnout and like nothing I do truly matters.

Here, my work-life balance is phenomenal; I get to go home at 5 and not think about work until the next day. It feels like my work actually means something, and I can track what gets done in real-time because of it. I don’t ever feel lost or like I’m being burnt out because all I have to do is ask for help — even better, I get the chance to help my coworkers whenever they have a little too much to chew on. I’m definitely reinvigorated to return and complete my final year of school and see where life takes me next.

Looking Ahead: Post-Internship Plans

My next steps are to return to college for my final year of school, graduate, and then establish myself in the profession. Immediately after college I don’t have any plans on where I would like to end up or what I want to do, but some day way far down the line I would love to end up somewhere in the Western half of the country, and the dream would be to be working on either amusement parks and zoos or community parks and gathering spaces. I had a dream of becoming a Disney Imagineer as a kid, and I don’t think I’ve fully let that one go yet.

In the meantime, I’ll go wherever the opportunities are and try to enjoy life, focusing on being part of designs that I can truly be proud of.
Advice for Future Interns

My advice for anyone applying for an Internship with DG2 is this: Make an effort to talk to everyone here. I didn’t do it right away after starting working here, and honestly, it was my biggest regret. Everyone is super friendly and willing to help; you can learn a lot from them if you are just willing to ask.