How Andre Banerjee ’18 gets motivated every day
This landscape designer and Knowlton School graduate has embraced volunteering wholeheartedly. Here’s what drives his passion.
Andre Banerjee talks with senior Samantha Grant during mock interviews at the Knowlton School. “I put myself in the mindset of what would have helped me as a student,” Banerjee says. “Something I think of as small, like giving career advice, would have been really meaningful.”
Every day when I wake up, I ask myself what I’m excited about. Back in my Knowlton School days, the answer was often my landscape architecture projects. These days, it’s often my job. I work at OHM Advisors in the Columbus office, where I use 3D modeling and visualization to design outdoor spaces. But just as often, I wake up excited about my volunteering.
I’ve served as a counselor for High School Design Studio, a camp run by The Center for Architecture and Design. One of my first campers ended up studying architecture at Ohio State and now she’s graduated and works at a firm. That was inspiring to witness. For over five years, I’ve worked with the Ohio Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects. I call it my second job and love it because we educate people about this field and advocate for professionals. I’ve lobbied legislators, run the website, started the diversity committee and chaired the awards committee, which looks at work from professionals and students. I’m passionate about bringing people into landscape architecture.
I come back to Ohio State every few months to help students. I ran into one of my old professors one time, and he—jokingly—said, “I see you all the time. Don’t you have a job?” In Knowlton, unlike colleges with a lot of exams and labs, students work on studio projects for a whole semester. At the end, you present to jurors, and I’ve been invited to be a juror a few times in the past couple of years to give students feedback about design and presentation. I’m still young in my field, but I share knowledge I’ve developed from projects at work and supervisor and client feedback. I think back to what my professors said that helps me now.
I also do portfolio reviews. Portfolios are one of the most important things when you apply for a job in design, and I see a lot in the hiring process at OHM. I tell students to focus on who they are as a designer and how they would be part of the team, and to choose projects that showcase that. I put myself in the mindset of what would have helped me as a student. Something I think of as small, like giving career advice, would have been really meaningful.
I started the practice of asking myself what I’m excited about after my freshman year at Ohio State. When I came back from Dayton, my hometown, after my first winter break, I was dealing with a lot of personal demons and didn’t have the tools to manage it all. I was admitted to the psych ward at Ohio State Harding Hospital off and on for about six weeks. I had to withdraw from classes and switch dorms—I felt defeated. But I didn’t give up, and my friends, family and faculty kept reaching out, so I didn’t lose that human connection even while feeling disconnected from college.
Honestly, that spearheaded my volunteering. Ten years ago, I couldn’t find any student groups fighting mental health stigmas, so I started my own, Student Advocates for Mental Equality, or SAME. It was a small effort, but we grew and grew, and as I put my face out there and was vocal about what I’d been through, that led to students opening up to me about their own mental health experiences. You would never expect the battles some people are facing just by looking at them. We eventually merged with the national group Active Minds. I also did BuckeyeThon, Buck-I-SERV and way more often, the Knowlton version, SERVitecture, going to help and learn in places like Boston, Kansas City and Toronto before graduating.
Last year, Knowlton nominated me for the Office of Advancement’s Volunteer Leader Academy [an outgrowth of the Time and Change campaign]. It was transformational. We learned how to be effective leaders and volunteers, things I will carry with me for a long time. We each made a map of our volunteer journey and looking at mine was striking. I realized, “Wow, I’ve put in a lot of time and effort to share landscape architecture.”
I feel privileged to have students and faculty and people trust me and invite me to come in and do these things. It’s motivating every day because I love what I do and I get to keep it growing with the next generation.
