My Beachfront Construction Summer Internship

This past summer, I got to participate in a six week summer internship in Provincetown, Massachusetts, working on a construction project with architect/ businessman/ renaissance man and long time family friend, Kevin Shea. Kevin is the owner of the inn my family has stayed at for vacation every summer for the past three decades, and has known about my love of architecture for many years. Every time he would have a project going on, he would take me to the job sites, explain the elevations and plans to me, and walk me through exactly how he was going about building the project. I was lucky enough to get my internship with him this summer, helping him work on the two beachfront properties he’s currently building in Truro, MA, despite COVID-19.

My daily job changed day to day, as we had discussed before the start of my internship with not knowing how the summer would play out with COVID-19. Some days I would be helping out around the Inn, fixing windows, cleaning screens, replacing sliding door rollers and weather sealers, painting and building fences, tending to the garden and even sailboat maintenance. I also spent some time doing online “post education” courses that Kevin recommended for me, such as kitchen design, material sourcing, and business management.

Other days, I’d be at the worksite helping him with whatever job he needed done alongside my coworker, Henry Tager (UMASS Amherst ‘19). That involved putting up fencing, clearing sand off of things, cutting, leveling and screwing in 2×4’s, cleaning, and being a third set of hands. Kevin always did a really good job explaining everything to me, and although it made us work a little bit slower, I’m glad he made the time anyways. I enjoyed the spontaneity of the days, not really knowing what I was doing that day until I got to work at 9AM. It was something new everyday.

One of my favorite memories from my internship was this really hot day towards the end of June. Kevin, Henry and I had been working in the heat all morning, and when we broke for lunch, Kevin decided we would take the afternoon off and put his 20ft sailboat in the water. We spent the whole afternoon setting his boat up and dropping it into the water, and then we sailed it all the way back to the inn. I love sailing, so that experience was really fun for me, as well as being a very good bonding experience for the three of us.

Coming out of this internship, not only am I even more sure that I want to become an architect, but I’m also very excited for what my future holds post graduation.

The job site

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