Shakeema Ible

I attribute my success to resilience and determination. A lot of people ask me, because I'm an A student, how do you do it? And my answer every time is, I have no idea. I just tell myself I'm gonna get it done, and I keep going. I never give up, and that's been a character trait of mine since I've been a child. I've always been pretty resilient and pretty determined. If I say I want something, I'm going to make that happen for myself. Even when things got challenging - whether it was paying for school out of pocket, taking semesters off because of finances, or finding a job that would work with my school schedule - I stayed consistent and determined. I saw it through to the end. There were days where I honestly was not sure how I was gonna make it happen, but I just kept going. Every time you get a good grade, every time you do really well on an assignment and a teacher tells you that you did a great job, it pushes you forward. So my advice is just do not give up. Even if you're going forward on 1%, keep going.

I would just tell them, be resilient, never give up, because there are gonna be some very hard moments, whether it's the material, whether it's balancing your school work life, whether it's balancing school and social activities. It's gonna get challenging somewhere along the way. I think the best thing you can do is just keep going. A lot of people ask me, because I'm an A student, how do you do it? And my answer every time is, I have no idea. I just tell myself I'm gonna get it done, and I keep going. I never give up, and that's been a character trait of mine since I've been a child. I've always been pretty resilient and pretty determined. If I say I want something, I'm going to make that happen for myself. So that would be my best advice. Just do not give up. Even if you're going forward on 1%, keep going. Every time you get a good grade, every time you do really well on an assignment and a teacher tells you that you did a really great job, it's gonna push your percentage right back up, so just don't give up.

I feel like one of the biggest issues right now we have in architecture is that a lot of our architects are complicit in helping to destroy our environment, when we should have all the tools necessary to build or help to contribute to building up the eco-infrastructure. Instead of trying to manipulate the landscape to adjust to our designs, we should be trying to create designs to adjust to specific landscapes. I want to focus on overall designs that focus on adding to the current eco-infrastructure that we have here, rather than destroying it. I believe we need to be that bridge to help communities get the resources they need to contribute in a way that would be very helpful for them long-term.

It's always been very important to me that I feel like I'm really contributing and adding value to the company. I've worked for an architectural firm and a construction company before, but I didn't feel like the client's best interest was at heart - it was all about the bottom line. I didn't feel like there was a lot of care for the people that we were supposed to be servicing, so I ended up leaving. Right now, I'm at an asset protection law firm, and I've been here for about 2 years because I actually really enjoy my job. I feel like we're making a difference, helping people to protect their assets and providing guidance. This aligns with my morals and my values. I've also learned a lot about financial literacy, which I'm extremely grateful for because that was something we were lacking growing up, and now I can pass it on to my own community. My goal has always been to become an architect and give back to where I'm from, to show the kids coming up that you can do anything you want to do. I want to be that bridge to help us get the resources that we need to contribute to the community in a way that would be very helpful for us long-term.