Alicia Heinsen
Becker Raab
Ben Poulin
Beth Emig
Jason Chmura
Jessica Mangin
Kyle Rendall
Matthew McChesney
Mayva Donnon
Merilee Meacock
Michael Shatken
Petar Mattioni
Scot Murdoch
Welcome to KSS’ summer interns! We are excited to welcome (and welcome back) these new additions to our team and look forward to collaborating with them throughout the coming months. Get to know our 2022 summer interns below!
JENNA ARNDT
Currently pursuing a Master of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania, Jenna is excited to gain exposure to new project types and work as part of a collaborative team. She is drawn to the iterative process of architecture as well as its potential to influence real-world conditions. Thus far in her career, Jenna has worked in the Washington, D.C. area, Maryland, and South Carolina on multi-family residential, university housing, and K-12 projects. Outside of architecture school and work, Jenna enjoys reading, singing, and painting, as well as visiting her family in Maryland.
A fifth-year undergraduate studying Architecture at Syracuse University, Chloe is drawn to the complexity, versatility, and diversity of opportunities offered by a career in design. To gain a well-rounded knowledge of different disciplines that will inform her work as an architect, Chole has interned with an engineering firm where she helped BIM leads with Revit work for MEP as well as an architecture firm in Florence, Italy, where she contributed to a design competition for satellite schools in Ethiopia. Chloe is excited by the lasting impact architecture can have on communities long after its completion. In her free time, Chloe enjoys time with family and friends, as well as painting and drawing.
Ellie recently graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a Master of Architecture and returned to KSS for a third summer. Originally from Cape Cod, Ellie is inspired by the power of nature to improve people’s health and aims to incorporate those qualities in her architecture, both in academic and professional settings. At KSS, Ellie enjoys being part of a firm that emphasizes healthy environments and quality projects through an animated, collaborative workflow. Her previous experience includes high-end residential design in Chatham, MA, and higher education projects in Washington, D.C. You can find Ellie walking or running around town, exploring the local flavor of wherever she is in the world that day.
Elizabeth, who is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Architecture at Virginia Tech, is drawn to the duality between the theoretical and the practical that is expressed through architecture. Much of Elizabeth’s schoolwork has focused on cultural projects such as libraries and archives through which she has developed an interest in finding ways to give green space and public gathering space back to the community. She is motivated by the act of turning a concept into reality, creating narratives and experiences for people through the built environment. Apart from architecture, Elizabeth is very interested in music and is a self-proclaimed plant mom.
A current graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania, Ross is excited to expand his professional experience at KSS and get to know the everyday of being an architect. Ross has been interested in sculpture and spatial design from a young age, and also enjoys problem-solving and negotiating with clients, which made pursuing a career in architecture a natural fit. He looks forward to seeing how the role of architects will change over the coming decades in tandem with the challenges we face as a society, notably climate change. When not studying or practicing architecture, Ross enjoys movies, music, and food.
NICOLE SAMIOS
Nicole studies architecture at Brown University where she loves taking classes on adaptive reuse and exploring in the design workshop. She is drawn to a career in architecture because of the opportunity to address problems through creativity and appreciates the beauty of the idea that people will someday inhabit and experience an architect’s drawing. Nicole is excited by the opportunities for architecture in the context of climate change and hopes to participate in the changing aesthetic and design of green buildings. Outside of school and work, Nicole enjoys running, playing tennis, gardening, and movies and recently joined Brown Motion Pictures, a club for making short films, as a production designer.
As an undergraduate at Syracuse University, Neha has conducted research on diverse topics with guidance from professors including an analysis of the spatial conditions in migrant shelters along the U.S.—Mexico border and studies of the material conditions of low-income rural housing in Masoro, Rwanda. Neha has always been interested in design across scales from interior details to urban and master planning and through her research experiences has broadened her perspective on the scope and impact architecture can have. With experience in high-end residential projects, Neha is interested in exploring civic projects in which there is opportunity to engage with the community in a more meaningful way. Outside of architecture, Neha loves to travel, hike, and play with her new puppy.
Currently pursuing a Master of Architecture at the University of Michigan, Aaron has several years of experience in the construction and manufacturing industry, working primarily in luxury residential and large civic projects. Aaron is inspired by the promise of changing dynamics between designers and buildings, especially as we look to better understand our carbon footprint and vertically integrate sustainability into building materials and processes. As he continues in his career, Aaron hopes to work on façade systems in schematic design and construction documentation. When not working or working on his thesis, Aaron enjoys woodworking and completing renovation projects for his family.