By: Andrea Reyes, NTCC Honors Coordinator & Dr. Andrew Yox, Honors Director
The honors program at Northeast Texas Community College continually strives to provide students with networking and career opportunities. As a result, Presidential Scholar, Israel Perez, was given the opportunity to meet with Architect Derrik Godwin and his team at Godwin Design Architects located in Hughes Springs on October 13, 2021.
Perez is a Mt. Pleasant graduate and the premiere winner of the Russell-Mowery Perpetual Honors Scholarship for significant contributions to Northeast Texas culture and life. He will be the first person in the history of the college, and perhaps in the state, to publish an article in the Texas Handbook, the main resource for Texas history. He will be presenting his work on Bo Pilgrim and the Protestant Ethic at the meeting of the National Collegiate Honors Council in Orlando at the end of this month.
As Perez is an aspiring architect, he was thrilled to receive the opportunity to meet with Architect Godwin. He went in with a basic understanding of the career and left with a reassured grasp, not only of the path to proper licensing, but of the possible drawbacks, the rewarding aspects of this career, and the mindset needed for success in this field.
The Godwin team allowed Perez to tour the office and to view a completed portfolio, original designs, and product samples that are used to improve design functionality and purpose. Architect Godwin also versed Perez on the art and passion for creation in architecture and the skills he would be wise to develop. An architect, in their mind, should successfully oversee the placement of every single nut and bolt needed for an up-to-code, structurally sound project, while, pleasing the customer and meeting their needs. Godwin shared how an architect may be taught to continuously ponder the question --“What does a brick want to be?”
“Meeting Mr. Godwin was a unique, and first hand experience to the daily life of an architect. My expectations were blown away by the coexistence of the complexity, yet, expressiveness, each drawing exhibits. Seeing some of the projects from ground 0 to the finished product was awe inspiring, as well as seeing what was once an idea, breathe life. When pen hits paper, especially in a Godwin drawing, it’s easy to see the passion and dedication put behind each concept,” commented Perez.
“Architect Godwin and his team gave Israel a phenomenal real-world introduction to the field of architecture. It is apparent that they are passionate about what they do, and I am grateful he was able to gain reassurance about the career he is working toward,” said Andrea Reyes, Honors Coordinator.
Applications to Honors Northeast are accepted throughout the year. 1 December for the spring semester, and 1 March for the following academic year are optimal deadlines for scholarships that can cover all the costs of matriculation. To submit an application or for more information about the program, contact Andrea Reyes areyes@ntcc.edu, or Dr. Andrew Yox at 903-434-8229, or ayox@ntcc.edu; check out the honors website at www.ntcc.edu/honors, or visit us in rooms 115 or 128B in the Humanities Building on the main campus of NTCC.
