Beginning in 5th grade, Senior Brendan Gannon knew exactly what he wanted to be when he grew up. He knew he wanted to be an architect. With going into his senior year, he began looking into colleges. That was when he found the college that would make his dream career come true: Kansas University. 

“The search for a school was not hard once I kind of knew where it was going. It was hard to know where to start because there is no state school in Missouri that offers Architecture,” Gannon said.

Gannon not only applied to Kansas University but also to Drury University in Springfield, MO. When applying, he had to go through an application process with listing his achievements, clubs involved in, and also write an essay as to why he wanted to be involved in the architecture program.

“There is an architecture group chat with all the kids who want to go into architecture and they were all talking about how they were receiving their letters so I texted my dad and asked if there was a letter from KU and there was,” Gannon said. “I was at dance so I told my dance teacher and she said ‘go home right now and then send a picture if its there’ and when I got home, it was there and they sent a video of everyone cheering.”

Brendan knew from a young age he wanted to be an architect. It started when he was young and built many, many things from legos. So many that he had an entire wall full of things he had made. Another thing that helped him realize his passion was when his parents were talking about their dream rooms, so he took that dream and drew it out for them. 

“When I was in middle school, I had a loft bed. And instead of making like shelves, like productive office spaces, it was five shelves full of legos,” Gannon said. “And I still have a shelf on the top of my shelving unit in my room with legos today.”

Gannon was accepted into the school but also into his dream career program, the 5-year architecture program. Along with being accepted, he also received the 5-year architecture program waiver. The program only has a 25% acceptance rate with only 90 out of 400 applicants actually being accepted.

With being one of the 90 out of 400 applicants to be accepted, he is given the chance to study abroad. It is required that in his 5th year, he works on a building or structure with the skills he had learned in the past 4 years before. He is given the option to travel to Southeast Asia, Europe, Australia, or other countries.

“One thing I look forward to the most is definitely that this program opens a ton of doors for my future and gives me great opportunities,” Gannon said.