For the second year, UK/CoD Assistant Professor Martin Summers and Instructor Regina Summers led the intensive, two-week Summer Career Discovery Program for high school juniors and seniors. The program served to expose prospective College of Design students to the type of learning environment they would experience as design students.
"They live on campus, eat on campus, go to classes, work in studios, and attend lectures," said Martin Summers. "In many ways, it's an introduction to life as a student in design school."
The participants took part in daily writing and drawing sessions, model-making workshops, field trips to relevant sites, project critiques, and attended lectures by other College faculty. Lecture topics ranged from studies in contemporary architecture and interior design to digital design and fabrication. Additionally, they learned how to prepare and present a portfolio of work. They presented their projects in group critiques where they recieved feedback from the instructors, fellow participants, and other faculty members and guests. "The format is exactly the same as what a first-year student would experience", said Martin Summers.
There were also opportunities to visit local design firms including Gray Construction, Omni Architects, Tate/Hill/Jacobs Architects, Alt32 Architecture, and EOP Architects. These firms all have ties to the College, participate in reviews, and many of them employ UK/CoD graduates.
The highlight for many of the student participants was seeing the correlation between the concepts taught in lectures and workshops and the real-world execution of those concepts. "It's always nice to see the fascination in things they've never seen before," said Regina Summers. "One of the most excting things was to not only see the friendships formed between the participants, but to see them gain confidence and comfort n the concepts they're learning."
