Architectural Technology Assistant Professor Jess Anastes shares a laugh with a student. (Matthew Burns/Wake Tech)

Assistant Professor Jess Anastes moves quickly around the noisy and chaotic Design and Construction Lab on Southern Wake Campus as her Architectural Technology students work to assemble scale models of a section of a two-story building.

One minute, she's querying a group of students about ratios to ensure the various elements of their models are in the correct proportions. The next, she's showing a student how to use a band saw safely to trim thin strips of wood that will be glued together to create I-beams and joists for his model.

Anastes has built plenty of models during her career as part of design teams that worked on buildings ranging from public schools to the Cary headquarters of software giant SAS Institute. But she feels most at home in the classroom – even a chaotic one.

"This is where I'm supposed to be," she said. "I really love teaching."

Architecture is practically in Anastes' DNA – her grandfather was a civil engineer, and her mother was a general contractor. As a child, she would often ride in a work truck to visit job sites.

"I loved walking around the framing of buildings under construction," she said. "I was always fascinated with floor plans and how things were laid out."

Even though she excelled at math in high school and has an artistic streak, the idea of combining the two talents never occurred to her. Instead, she went to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with an eye toward a medical career. But she admits she struggled with chemistry and biology, and the thought of working in a hospital terrified her.

Anastes held down as many as three part-time jobs to help pay for college and was always worried about money and finding a career that not only interested her but was also financially stable. She says that experience now helps her relate to many Wake Tech students.

Although she eventually pursued a bachelor's degree in graphic design, it was her visits to Davis Library on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus that convinced her she still hadn't found her passion.

"I understood how the architect had laid out everything. It just made sense to me," she said.

One of her professors suggested she consider becoming an architect, and she went on to earn a master's degree in architecture from North Carolina State University. She then worked for almost two decades at Raleigh-based Davis Kane Architects.

When the grind of dealing with clients began to wear on her, Anastes says, she considered moving to a position in sustainability or into teaching. She often trained younger colleagues at Davis Kane, so she felt she would do well in a classroom.

She found her opportunity to make the transition in 2019 when Phillip Jefferson, a classmate of hers at N.C. State who heads Wake Tech's Architectural Technology program, asked her to review some of his students' work and then talked with her about a job.

"Their work was amazing," she said, "the different perspectives they brought to projects because of their varied backgrounds."

Her students say they likewise appreciate the background she brings to the classroom.

"She has charisma," Beatriz Fernandes said. "She's worked on so many jobs that she knows what we need to know to be successful."

"You can tell she loves what she does," Holden McKnight said. "She's very hands-on and really cares about helping students understand concepts."

Anastes says meeting the needs of the range of students at Wake Tech is often challenging. 

"It's hard to teach students on different career paths," she said. "We have students who intend to transfer to four-year universities, people looking to upgrade their skills and others just taking a design class for fun."

But she adds that she's always up for a challenge.

"From an early age, I was taught to work, so that's what I do," she said.