My name is Nina Sacco, and I just completed my third year as an architecture student at the University of Pittsburgh. I am completing a double major in Architecture and History of Art and Architecture because I want to work in Historic Preservation, specifically Architectural Conservation, in graduate school and moving forward. I have always had a love for creative, hands-on work, so I am also completing a minor in Studio Arts. Though architectural design has been a wonderful field for improving my creative and technical skills, and fulfilling the love for hands-on work through projects, drawings, and model-making, my interest in Historic Preservation comes from a prioritization of sustainability and waste reduction. Construction projects contribute to a large portion of our carbon emissions and waste pollution. Maintaining existing structures not only mitigates this problem but also preserves character and diversity in styles and building techniques. I love learning about how different cultures, societies, and eras created unique architectural styles, and I am also very interested in material behavior. I have been able to attend conferences and academic talks about different projects involving material aging and how restoration projects handle these archaeological tasks. The architecture, arts, and HAA programs at Pitt have been a wonderful start to my understanding of this vast professional field. In graduate school, I plan to really begin this concentration in Preservation and Conservation. 

Stockholm immediately stood out to me as a city with a lot of opportunities in different directions. The architecture ranges from preserved medieval structures in Gamla Stan to incredibly modern high-rise buildings housing tech startups and luxury apartments. Though there were not any opportunities available in the architecture field, I knew there would be a place to apply my skills in many different fields. In Stockholm, I am pursuing an internship with the company The Park as a Business Development and Marketing Intern. Most of my time at Pitt involves graphic design in some way, shape, or form. I am constantly making diagrams and presentations to explain my design process, creating digital 3-D models, making graphics for an arts magazine, or making logos/merch designs for the architecture club. Pursuing an internship in Graphic Design felt like the perfect way to combine my love for creative arts and my technical skills in a practical way. I am not totally sure what to expect in the day-to-day at The Park, since from our conversations it seems like I will be helping in many different areas, but I am very excited to see how I can use my experiences to assist the company. In my years at school, I have not had the opportunity to experience a true professional internship. I have spent most summers working at part-time jobs to make money, so that I can focus on my academics during the school year. This will be a great introduction to the professional world, before hopefully working with a firm that focuses on preservation next summer. 

I have travelled a lot with family growing up. Our family vacations have always been something I valued and made sure I never took for granted, since they were always my fondest memories. However, the logistics and stresses of travelling were always taken out of my hands. My dad had a lot of experience travelling for work, so he got us through the airports and flights. And my mother loves to plan and organize, so she would set our itinerary far ahead of time. Travelling for this amount of time completely on my own is both terrifying and incredibly exciting. With the amount I have been on airplanes, I am not too worried about the travel itself. But there are little pieces and details that I have never been through totally alone, and I am interested to see how I handle them without help. I am excited to be in one city long enough to feel comfortable and present each day. Right now, two months feels like all the time in the world, but I know once I leave it will feel like I was barely there. I want to challenge myself to make every day something new, and to make sure I am not letting too many days fly by. My work schedule will almost definitely be a challenge; the commute is about one hour, and I am meant to be at work Monday-Friday 8 am-5 pm, so I will be getting up much earlier than I am used to. But I am overall very excited to throw myself in an entirely new place and lifestyle, and challenge myself to be on my own for the first time.