Holy Child senior’s interest in architecture sparked by LEGOs and an internship leads to historic campus designed by Thomas Jefferson
Explaining the roots of her interest in architecture, Caroline Albrecht, a member of the class of 2025 at Connelly School of the Holy Child in Potomac, Maryland, said, “Since I was a kid, I was always interested in design games, LEGOs and building things.”
Her first LEGO set was a house. “I loved the creativity aspect,” she said.
After her sophomore year at Holy Child, during the school’s experiential learning experience, she got to listen to a presentation by CGS Architects, a firm in Washington’s Georgetown neighborhood. The next summer, she did an internship there.
During Albrecht’s internship, she got to see how computer modeling works and visit construction sites in the area, including at Holy Child, where the firm was renovating classrooms, flooring and windows in the main school building. That experience, she said, introduced her to what it would be like to work as an architect and sparked her interest in commercial architecture, which includes designing projects like schools, restaurants and recreational facilities.