Interior design students get real-life experience to showcase their work in the Career Services office. Sophomore Dana Vaux, a nontraditional student, received national recognition for her project. The project was a kitchen design entered in the National Kitchen and Bath Association’s (NKBA) student competition. Vaux said she was one of 127 people who entered the contest, and received an honorable mention.

“I’m excited to place at all,” Vaux said. “It was the first time I’ve entered a design contest. I’m going to use the experience when I’m out there as a professional.” Lorie Follette, an instructor in interior design, said students in two introductory-level courses and one sophomore-level course do the projects. Sophomore Michelle Campbell created a project for her interior design 201 class that designed a hypothetical art museum on the WSU campus at the corner of Stadium Way and Grimes Rd. Students in her class were instructed to use as much natural light as possible and to draw inspiration for the interior from one or two paintings.

“It was one of the first projects I worked on from the bottom up,” Campbell said. “It was neat being able to see all the aspects and make it the way I wanted to.” The projects must meet the criteria set forth by the competitions and other criteria set forth by the classes. Then the students have the option of entering into a contest.

Vaux said she had to design a specific amount of counter space and had to account for safety and the placement of appliances for the NKBA competition. “(I thought) how is this possible?” she said. “You have to try to fit everything you need in a kitchen and have an exciting design.” The NKBA judges projects on how well they followed criteria, and also how they met the needs of their client, found through a survey done by the client. Follette said another part of the experience is learning the “real-world” skill of interviewing a client. Vaux’s client, her brother who lives in Hawaii, had a unique Balinese Asian style to his home, and a 180 degree view of the ocean from the kitchen. “Part of the success of my design was that it was unique,” she said. “The kitchen was made up of two islands, and I found antiques (to include in the space). It was fun and challenging in terms of trying to make it work.” Campbell said the process for designing her project was long. First she had to do preliminary brainstorming, and at certain points students can get stuck.

“If you were in a firm, you’d move quicker,” she said. “(But) we had time to really see different ideas and brainstorm with other people.”