The month of February…
is also known as the month of love in many countries, including Indonesia. Although love is supposed to be shared and showed every day, but let us concentrate on give MORE LOVE throughout this month of February as well as in the future. This month’s article will be featured Carmen van Vroonhoven, our lovable on-going intern from the Netherlands.
We have been admitting interns since our early days. They have always been an important part in the company’s outgrowth. Not only because their contribution but also it is somewhat a way for us to give back. Since most of our interns are usually final year architecture students, we believe it could be a good opportunity before they are entering the real world of work. Having such an intimate work nuance definitely brings us closer to each other, including with all the interns. With this we hope to acknowledge and appreciate more.
The long of the internship programs can be vary from each intern, it is usually somewhere between 2-4 months. During this time, we grew closer and Carmen has become a part of us. Carmen started her internship program on November 11th 2017 and will be finish on March 9th 2018. She is now on her third year of university. She decided to join an intern program in Bali through an internship mediator back in her country.
Why here?
Why Indonesia? Or Bali, in particular? In her 23 years of life, she has been travelling across Europe. Her love for travelling has finally brought her here to get the taste of a tropical country. She also wanted to learn more about tropical plants. Currently, she is studying landscape engineering. A major focusing on work preparation and realization of public green spaces and infrastructure.
Since she lives in a 4 season country, the type of plants are very much different from plants in the tropical country such Indonesia. She would only learn on plants intended for a colder climate, like the Netherland. Here in Bali, the hospitality and tourism sector is growing rapidly. Resorts and hotels keep popping up left and right, villas are scattered in every part of the island and therefore Bali is a living catalogue for tropical landscape design. This intern experience is a whole new world for her.
The love ride of an intern
One of Carmen’s future plans is to have her own landscape construction company in the Netherland, hence she is focusing mostly on the more technical part for the landscape realization. This is one of the reasons she decided to join us, to have a deeper understanding on the design and visualization process. Since one of our specialization is in landscape design, she got really enthusiastic when was first offered the place. She was excited to learn new software and developing new skills. During her internship program she is placed in team C supervised by one of SHL Asia’s principles, Anang Rahman Hakim. She frequently came along for site visits to some of our projects. Her tasks are mainly support and assist any on-going project, such as on preliminary phase like making mood boards and plant images as well as working on 3D modelling.
No struggles, no progress…
She has faced some challenges throughout the program. Different language or culture is one thing but operating new software is another thing. She has been assisting on Bisma Garden project and working with a new Lumion program which was completely foreign for her. Lumion is 3D visualization software that offers the possibility to walk through the project area before the construction process started. It brings the 3D modelling comes alive. Learning new software in a short amount of time was not easy. However she managed to operate it of course with the help and support from her supervisor and all work mates. Another challenge for her was learning the different kind of vegetation between the tropical and subtropical plants with plants in the colder climate. She has to learn not only the different type of vegetation but also the names in different language, in order to work on preliminary phase to collect plant images. Regardless all challenges, she very much enjoyed the process and loved learning all the new things.
I had an amazing time during this period and thanks for the education and fun from everyone. Also, I would like to thank all the employees of SHL ASIA for the excellent cooperation and the effort that it took to speak English. I will definitely return to Bali once!
All in all, every intern as well as all the alumni is very dear and close to our heart. They have given a significant contribution to the company’s progress and output. Not only Carmen, but it has always been a pleasure to have all the interns as a part of us. We have learned from each other and made good memories together. All this time it has been an ups and downs journey for us and the interns and they deserve no less of recognition as an intern.