My Path to A Career in The Built Environment

Date Posted: November 18, 2025

Posted In: Featured, Organizations, People,

Editor’s Note: We met Trenton (Trent) Clark last week at the Inaugural Scholarship Luncheon of COMTO St. Louis (Council Of Minority Transit Officials), where he was one of the speakers. Trenton told the audience there so eloquently about his journey as a young architect-in-the-making that we asked him to share it with you.

by Trent Clark

My path has never been defined by a single moment, title, or achievement. Instead, it has been shaped by an enduring belief in my faith and leadership. Those components are, in my opinion, the courageous and often unspoken language of human influence and success. Before I ever held formal positions, earned scholarships, or stepped into professional spaces, I recognized leadership as my most natural gift. It is sort of like a quiet, yet powerful, force that allows people to imagine something better and then move toward it together.

I view leadership as more than a role. It is a responsibility to extend guidance, creativity, and stability to the generations coming after us. It is the art of giving shape to human potential and using influence to create positive and effective change. If influential figures in my life never invested and believed in me, I don’t know where I’d be now. That adamant belief in me has guided my steps since middle school, when I first made the decision to believe in myself, even amidst uncertainty.

Learning to Lead

Fast forward to now, on campus at Washington University in St. Louis, I have had the privilege of putting this philosophy into practice. As an Ervin, McLeod, and Sam Fox Scholar, I’ve been recognized for initiative, service, and the pursuit of excellence. These ideals were embodied by the leaders for whom these scholarships are named.

But my leadership extends beyond campus just as deeply.

My workshops, conversations, and guidance are designed to show them what is possible, because someone once did the same for me.

An Intern at Sixteen

One of the most influential people in my journey has been Shawn Leight, vice president and chief -operating officer at CBB Transportation + Planners. Shawn not only opened professional doors for me; he opened my perspective. Under his mentorship, I became the youngest intern to work with CBB at age sixteen. I learned the foundational differences between vertical and horizontal design, contributed to major transportation projects, and even wrote my first white paper for a bridge construction in Joplin. As I grew, Shawn helped me recognize that my passion also aligned with the vertical side of design—architecture—and his support guided my transition into the field I study today.

Another defining chapter of my journey came through Project PAVE, a leadership and engineering immersion program I joined from October 2020 to July 2021. Every Saturday, I met virtually with Ms. Vivian Martain (program administrator) and a group of dedicated students, during one of the most uncertain times in modern history (COVID-19 Pandemic).

Ms. Martain believed in me even before I saw my own full potential. That experience that I developed will never leave my mind. Standing on the newly completed West Florissant Bridge, delivering a speech on live news before leaders from MoDOT, Millstone Weber, and CBB, and cutting the ribbon that officially opened the bridge to the community. It was the kind of moment that reminds you why the work matters.

Starting In a Pandemic

My academic journey began in a global pandemic, but my life journey began long before that, when I understood that belief creates opportunity, and opportunity creates purpose. Therefore, I realized the only thing that bridges talented students like myself to success, is opportunity. Managing school, internships, professional commitments, and life has not been easy, but every challenge has strengthened my resilience.

Every mentor has expanded my vision. Every step has reinforced that leadership is not about being the loudest voice in the room; it is about being the most committed to the people within it. And I know that the journey is often a rigorous battle, but I refuse to give up.

Today, as an architecture, engineering, and marketing student at Washington University in St. Louis, I continue to blend service with ambition, design with impact, and leadership with humility. My path is still unfolding and beginning, but the foundation remains the same: use what I’ve been given to build, uplift, and guide. A chain that must be protected and continued. If leadership is a language, then I am grateful I learned to speak it early, and even more grateful that I now use it to help prepare the next generation.

A junior in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, Trent Clark has already distinguished himself as a recipient of the John B. Ervin Scholars Program and the James E. McLeod Scholars award — markers of both academic excellence and a deep-rooted commitment to service. From his quiet study sessions in the Bear’s Den at Washington University to hands-on mission work constructing homes and medical facilities in Costa Rica, Trenton blends his architectural passion with a clear sense of community purpose.