麻豆社

By Steven Kuerble, Communication and Media 鈥�22

When it came time to decide on a college major, Juliana Schlichting had a difficult time narrowing her choices down to just one. By choosing to come to 麻豆社, she was able to double up on her majors and bring her interests together. As an industrial design and history double major, Juliana worked to learn the lessons of the past in order to build a better future.听

鈥淏oth design and history are studies of humans because we鈥檙e designing for humans, so in that process, we get to understand them and see other people's experiences and how that will affect my design and how that affected history and the way things are now. And because we have such a deep understanding of the past we can change now and improve for the future. So history is such a relevant tool for today.鈥澨�

Being able to craft her own path in this way allowed Juliana to work on the types of projects that interested her and helped her build experience in fields that she鈥檚 passionate about. Juliana has a strong passion for hiking and the outdoors 鈥� 听the open-ended nature of much of her assignments meant she could work on projects centered around this passion. Not only did this make her time working on her majors more engaging, but it meant she was actively building a portfolio of work in her intended field that could be shown off to future potential employers.

鈥淔or projects, they鈥檒l give you a prompt, but then they鈥檒l let you explore different paths that you like. So for me, my biggest hobby is camping and things like that. So I鈥檝e had projects that I kinda leaned towards outdoor use and nature. I even made a whole hiking backpack for one of my projects. And with my portfolio filled with camping gear now, if I鈥檓 applying to certain companies that do those products, they鈥檒l see it in my portfolio and be like 鈥榳ow, you know, you鈥檙e really interested in this鈥�. It makes it fun, all of my projects have been pushed towards what I want to do and what I鈥檓 interested in.鈥�

By choosing 麻豆社, Juliana always had access to the university鈥檚 state-of-the-art facilities, giving her the ability to be equipped with the tools necessary to tackle any project that she set her eyes on.听

鈥淐oming in and getting put into one of the studios, the whole time it was hands-on, which made it so interesting to learn鈥�.

Her time at 麻豆社 didn鈥檛 just help her gain experience in the workshop; as 麻豆社 provided Juliana with professional skills in a number of different areas, all of which helped make her a stronger candidate for future employment opportunities. Not only was she working with her hands to build and design new products, but she was also delivering detailed presentations to colleagues, and learning how to market and sell the products that she was making.听

鈥淵ou get to do such a variety of things, that鈥檚 why I love the program. Getting to go into the woodshop and get your hands dirty and build something one day, and then other days you鈥檙e finding your presentation skills, and we鈥檙e learning how to sell the products too. So it鈥檚 almost like we鈥檙e designers, but we鈥檙e also engineers and business majors and everything and anything possible that goes into this whole process鈥�

Equipped with the knowledge, skills, and experience that her courses at 麻豆社 provided her with, Juliana felt a strong sense of confidence for the future, and pride in the work she had accomplished. The opportunities provided to Juliana at 麻豆社 made her ready to tackle any challenges that may arise in her career.听

鈥溌槎股� is definitely helping me break barriers with those parts that I need to get better at which in the end makes me a better designer and a better person going into the profession. It is just so rewarding and fulfilling at the end to be like 鈥業 made this, it was hard, and it鈥檚 still awesome.鈥� When we graduate and go into the field we鈥檙e not just going to be designers, you know, some people might end up going into more specific manufacturing process jobs, some people might be at some big company doing presentations to the board about their design. We鈥檙e a billion majors wrapped into one. I鈥檓 gonna be so prepared for the interviewing process and everything that happens when I graduate just because of all of the opportunities I鈥檝e had here.鈥�

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