Now in Education: Vernelle A. A. Noel on Teaching Yourself, Teaching Others, and Doing Good
By Amy Stone
Vernelle A. A. Noel is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Architecture at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She investigates computational design, culture, and society through traditional and technological ways of making by building new tools, methodologies and theories to examine and express their relationships. Vernelle holds a Ph.D. from the Pennsylvania State University, an MS from MIT, a B.Arch from Howard University, and a Diploma in Civil Engineering from the John S. Donaldson Technical Institute.
She is a TED Speaker, conducts design workshops across the globe, and has practiced as an architect in the USA, India, and Trinidad & Tobago. In her interview with Amy Stone, Vernelle talks about her start in teaching and the importance of her being in that room, advising those just starting their careers to take initiative and also teach themselves.
AS: How did your interest in architecture first develop?
VN: I don’t know which came first but I always loved tinkering with things like old clocks, watches, and pens. I also always liked construction because my family got together around it. Whenever we would have any additions or any repairs to the home, my uncles, my aunts, my grandparents, my mom, my dad, everybody would be around. I really love the smell of cement, it reminds me of those times of us coming together.
I also liked drawing and painting, and in high school, I did technical drawing – architectural drafting - and fell in love with it. My teacher said I should do architecture but there was no school of architecture in Trinidad. The closest thing I could come to was civil engineering. So after high school, I went on to pursue civil engineering at a Technical Institute - this way, I was exposed to architecture, as well as engineering, surveying, and construction.
How did you finally get to architecture?
For one of my Civil Engineering class projects, I had to choose a built project, study it, and write a report on it. I chose the Brian Lara Promenade and contacted the architect - Colin Laird – and asked to visit him to conduct an interview, see project drawings, models, etc. to do my research report. He said sure! So that’s what I did. Every day, I went to his office, read, made models, and drew.
I fell in love with architecture even more because of the kind human he was. Colin was an amazing mentor to me. While going to school I worked as an engineer, but I still wanted to be an architect. There are many stories that lead to this, but I eventually got the opportunity to go to school to study architecture.
Vernelle with The Sail, a lightweight mobile structure constructed from fiber-glass rods, and 3D printed connections.
Vernelle and her students exhibit our lightweight, active-bending pavilion at IASS conference in Barcelona, Spain.
Where did you go to school?
Howard University. Three of my cousins were at Howard, and many of the architects I knew also went to Howard for architecture. The first Prime Minister of my country – Eric Williams - taught at Howard University.
What did you learn there?
Because I had so much real world experience coming into the program – drafting and construction - I knew what worked and what didn’t. However, this meant that I lacked a certain playfulness, I guess. I remember we had a beach house project in my first year of studio - I will never do a beach house again by the way [laughs] – and I didn’t waste much time fiddling around. I had a project that had to be completed and presented by a certain day and time.
For the final review, many of my classmates had little work complete. They had a lot of ideas but nothing was really flushed out. Unfortunately, the professors seemed to use my project – the only complete one – as an example of what not to do. I was extremely shocked by what they did and found it unfair. At the end though, one professor came to me and said, “You know too well what works, you need to be more playful with your ideas and what you are doing.”
That was a really good lesson for me to loosen up and be playful with design. My playfulness started then and continues today.
“Those who make it are those who teach themselves, not those who wait to be taught.”
How did you get your start in the field?
While at Howard, I started working with one of my professors in my second summer through until my third year. When I gained enough experience, I started getting my own clients and projects doing rehabs, renovations, and historic preservation projects. That’s always the way I learn – by doing my own thing.
In my final year, I took a break because I now had to focus on my thesis. Towards the end of the year, during a career fair at HU, a firm based in Georgetown, DC named Burt Hill, stood out to me. I liked them because one of our alumni – Damon Sheppard - was a very successful architect there. Once I received a couple of offers, I chose to go to Burt Hill because of Damon, and that’s how I got going after Howard University.
Some years later, you are now teaching at Georgia Tech, having finished your PhD. Walk me through to how you got to where you are now.
As an international student, after one year on my OPT, Burt Hill had to apply for an H1 visa for me. The plan was that if I didn’t get it – because there are always many applications - I would work at one of their international offices in Dubai or India. We didn’t get the H1 and I chose India – Indian culture was familiar to me and I always wanted to go to there. I moved to Ahmedabad in Gujarat and worked there with the hope of going back to the US after we applied for the H1 again, but then the economy tanked so I moved back to Trinidad in late 2008.
While in India, I started Architecture Caribbean - an online portal and magazine for Caribbean architects, artists, designers to engage in conversation and share work with each other. And while in Trinidad I continued to work on developing Architecture Caribbean now that I was actually in the Caribbean. As I was working on it, a friend from Howard who was at MIT told me to have a look at MIT’s Design Computation program. I kind of had no clue what it was about, but when I looked, I was intrigued. I applied, was accepted, and I went! I was at MIT for two years for a Masters of Science in Architecture Studies with a focus on computational design.
Vernelle conducting wire-bending workshops with students and teachers in Trinidad & Tobago.
Photo of wire-bender Stephen Derek practicing wire-bending.
What did you do after?
In my first summer at MIT, I got the opportunity to go to Singapore to work on a research project with faculty at MIT and Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD). I went to Singapore and I fell in love with the country. I wanted to find a way back, so I applied for a teaching fellowship with MIT after I finished my thesis, and taught design and computation at SUTD for a year. While in Singapore I applied to PhD programs and chose Penn State. Then, while finishing up my PhD, I came to Tech.
Backtracking a little, how did you realize you wanted to get into teaching?
In my last summer at MIT, I did their teaching certificate program. I didn’t know you could learn how to teach. That blew my mind and I loved what I learned. In one of the sessions we were learning about teaching in a multicultural classroom, the knapsack problem, and stereotype threat – all speaking to the issues minority students constantly face.
Knapsack problems?
These papers discussed white privilege and the experiences of minority students in education. For this particular session on race and education a video was shown of minority students at MIT speaking about their experiences with some mentioning that faculty did not seem to expect much from them or for them to learn. The purpose of the session was for us as future educators to better understand the experiences of Black and Latinx students..
We had to discuss what we read and learned from the video. Unfortunately, the discussions around disgusted me, frankly. The purpose of the readings were to understand these issues so that we could be better teachers. But, the discussions by non-black and non-latinx future educators continued to blame minority students. At that moment I decided that I had to be in the room and in education to support minority students because it seemed like those in the room were not interested in understanding their experiences and teaching with this in mind. In other words, they may be harmful to these kids.
Since you’ve been teaching – do you feel like that’s been confirming what you want to do?
I started teaching at Penn State, and absolutely. I love research, the students, the camaraderie, and I get to keep learning.
“...the discussions by non-black and non-latinx future educators continued to blame minority students...I decided that I had to be in the room and in education to support minority students because it seemed like those in the room were not interested in understanding their experiences and teaching with this in mind.”
Looking back, so far what have been your biggest challenges?
There are many. I think one of my main challenges has been being a foreigner. But that’s not just me. It’s an immigrant struggle as they say and something that still continues today.
I am not speaking for every immigrant, just for me, but not being able to apply for loans or work off campus when you get in school is very tough. You are limited if you don’t get a scholarship. You are limited in the things you can do to fund yourself financially. I sometimes forget that I am not American and that I have to get visas to go certain places. I have restrictions on me. I am not all free willy-nilly to do certain things. That’s for school, that’s for hiring, that’s for how you are hired, when you are hired, where you are hired. There is just a lot of uncertainty and it can take a toll. But also one of the things I think is a blessing for us is that we have the opportunity to go home. We know there is another place we can go to.
Conversely, what have been some of your biggest highlights?
Being invited to do a TEDx talk. I am also an artist, and I was commissioned to produce illustrations for a 50 year anniversary book for a firm in Trinidad and Tobago.
I got a voice message on my phone one day in my office, but I couldn’t really hear well what the person said. So I let my cousin hear it and we said, “Wait is it TED that I’m hearing?!” The woman called me back - turns out, she was a daughter of the owner of the company I was commissioned to do the artwork for. She said she was involved in TEDx Port of Spain – the Trinidad and Tobago arm of TED – and wanted me to consider giving a talk at their TED event. That was one of my biggest moments in my career.
I’m looking forward to watching that! Who are you admiring right now?
I’m thinking right now about Ruha Benjamin and Ron Eglash. Ruha talks about race as technology and her most recent book talks about artificial intelligence and how embedded in it are racism and these biased histories and how it affects minorities. She argues for and shows examples of anti-racist technologies that attempt to flip the script on and highlight coded racisms so that discriminations are brought to the fore.
I’m reading Rob Eglash because he talks about generative justice and anti-racism, and justice-framed approaches to design, from technology to architecture. He gives examples of designing with communities and people in mind, that aren’t colonizing, and categorizing, and separating as the history of America and how race plays in all these things.
I think I’ve listened in Ruha talking on different podcasts. I didn’t realize how much our different systems are relying on these coded algorithms that have racism embedded in them. And that’s just based on data that has flaws in it – and our use of that data is just deepening the flaws and problems. It’s very eye opening.
Exactly.
Vernelle and her Computational Wire-bending students under the wire-bending pavilion at Georgia Tech.
Pavilion built from wire-bending techniques coming out of the Trinidad Carnival.
Talking about these issues, what is the impact you would like to have on the world?
I would like to leave an impression on minorities - this includes women, minority students, however you frame minorities – that they can do it. “Doing it” for them will require a lot more work than others might have to engage in. It’s hard work. But they can do it.
Being motivated by those tiny cuts is valid. Using the injustices you see in the world to motivate yourself to address them through your work is and can be very rewarding. First and foremost though, be patient with yourself. Learning to be patient with yourself is a lesson you have to absorb. Always have a support system. Always fight for others. This I mentioned – this idea of being good irritates the hell out of me.
Tell me more about this - I’ve heard you say that before and it really motivated me.
I don’t want people who think they are “good” around me. Because this probably means this person wants to be liked by everyone or they are unaware of the hard work that goes into being good. I don’t think anyone “good” says they are good because good requires constant action. It is a continuous journey, not a destination. Good means you are aware that you can always do better. If you aren’t doing anything outside of yourself to enact goodness – you aren’t good and can instead be a danger to others. So to be safe, stay close to those who actually do good.
“Being motivated by those tiny cuts is valid. Using the injustices you see in the world to motivate yourself to address them through your work is and can be very rewarding.”
Incredible. What is something you wish you knew starting out that you have learned along the way?
I don’t want to say I wish I had known it because I felt like I learned it at the right time, but one of my most important lessons was the importance of teaching yourself. I thought others had to teach me things, but that’s not the case. Those who make it are those who teach themselves, not those who wait to be taught.
Learning how to teach myself and making time to teach myself – I wouldn’t say it gives me a leg up – but at least I don’t feel behind. I know what I don’t know and I know I have to teach myself things. Now that I am on the other side as an educator, I would say don’t wait for others to spoon-feed and teach you everything. Especially now if you have access to technology. As a student or someone who wants to keep abreast of what’s happening – you have to take the time to teach yourself.
And with that in mind, what advice do you have for people who are just starting out in their career?
Be the person who everyone comes to to get things done. This has served me well throughout my professional career. My employers knew I could take on certain roles because it was proven in the work I did. Don’t wait for others to tell you to do things. Take initiative always. By learning all you can, people can rely on you to lead projects and work effectively.
Also, find someone you like, who can serve as a mentor to you. Learn all you can from that person and use them as a model. Maybe it’s the way they talk to persons, design, manage projects, or do construction documents, but your goal – or one of your goals – should be to learn all you can from them, “What they know, I need to know too.”