Boston Architectural College

Students are accelerating their careers through The Integrated Path to Architectural Licensure (IPAL) program—allowing them to jump directly from graduation to work as a licensed architect.

If life had gone differently, Nathan Rosazza would have spent his time playing guitar on stage. “I never really cared about school,” he says. “I just wanted to be a rockstar.” He dropped out of high school, earning a GED instead, and worked backbreaking warehouse jobs in western Massachusetts, all the while continuing to write songs and play in bands.

When he turned 30, however, he started to realize that perhaps his dream of being a rockstar wasn’t going to happen. He remembered a conversation he had with a mentor a decade earlier when he was thinking about a job in construction or carpentry.

“He suggested my personality was more suited to being an architect,” he says. “It kind of planted a seed. Nathan eventually planted that seed, growing it into a career. He had always enjoyed drawing, as well as writing and recording songs, and now set about applying that creative mindset to designing buildings.

He joined the Air Force Reserve and began taking architecture classes at a local community college, finding to his surprise that he actually got good grades. “I just had a strong determination to make it happen,” he says.

Starting the path to becoming an architect in his thirties, however, made Nathan feel like he had to make up for lost time. When he heard about the IPAL program at the BAC, he felt it was the perfect opportunity to earn his degree and license in the fastest way possible.

“I just decided I was going to put my head down and plow through everything as fast as I could,” he says. “I had to play catchup.”