UC alum mentors DAAP student at Kimley-Horn co-op

“Those co-ops helped me get a better understanding of real-world applications and my passion for urban design,” says Young, adding that over the next decade of his career, it was always his hope to offer UC students the same opportunities he had, where they could gain the same valuable, real-world experiences he did when he was a student.

That opportunity came in May 2024 when Young was a guest speaker at UC’s College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (DAAP). Now he would be able to offer a leg up to another, as Young heads a land planning team with Kimley-Horn, an engineering, planning and design consulting firm with an office in downtown Denver, Colorado. 

In the audience of his speech was Sophia Gartland, a second-year urban planning major at UC who was starting to explore avenues for her first co-op experience.

“Things just happened to fall into place really well,” Gartland says of connecting with Young and securing an internship on his team for spring 2025. While a first for Young’s team, the firm already brings on 1,000 interns from all over the country to its 125-plus locations with over 8,500 employees.

Under Young’s direction, Gartland is immersed in a professional consulting environment. Young’s team is currently working on comprehensive plans, housing needs assessments and various transit-related projects for communities in Colorado, Nevada, California and Washington. Gartland says she is involved in all aspects of these projects, from data collection to client meetings.

“The client interface is something that you don’t get in a classroom or studio,” she says, pointing to the benefits of taking what you learn in class out into the field. “Skills that you learn in both environments are so important.” 

Young says he emphasizes the same valuable lessons that he learned during his co-op experiences — one of which is time management. “As a consultant, we need to be efficient with our time and diligent with managing tasks,” he says. “We make sure that we are not just hiring co-ops to answer the phones."

Providing career opportunities and out-of-office experiences are benefits provided by Kimley-Horn. In addition to work, there is a VP of Fun in each office, who organizes extracurricular activities such as hockey games, bowling, snow skiing and other networking events, says Young.

These extracurriculars in a city surrounded by mountain ranges were an important draw for student Gartland, a member of the UC Mountaineering Club, which teaches members to rock climb, cave, backpack, canoe, raft and protect the earth at the peer-to-peer level. The move to Denver, she says, was made easier when she connected with several other UC students interning there, one of whom became her roommate.

“The work has been valuable, and I’ve even found some people my age to explore with,” says Gartland, who stressed, “It’s such an amazing and unique experience that not all universities offer.”  

Featured image at top: At the Kimley-Horn headquarters, Sophia Gartland (center) flanked by her direct supervisor Ines Ines Galmiche (left) and Blake Young.