Jessica Statz
The Annual IIDA Student Mentorship Week occurred during the week of February 4th – 8th this year. Over 340 students and over 170 design professionals nationwide participated in this year’s event. Of those, 64 students and 30 design firms from the Illinois Chapter participated. Thanks to all who participated to make this a success. This year, the Illinois Chapter was able to accommodate all participating students!
In order to show how beneficial the experience is we asked some students and their design mentors to let us know how their days went.
IA Interior Architects’ John Hopkins, AIA, LEED AP (Design Director), Liz Hampton (Project Designer) and Hannah McMinn (Project Designer) hosted students Lisa Walwer (Senior) and Jody Carmany (Sophomore) of Illinois State University. It was the first time both the designers and students had participated in the mentor week. They both recognized the day together as a mutual learning experience and networking opportunity. During the day the students were able to participate in showroom tour, observe a weekly construction call, learned what goes into schematic design set and learned how to put together a finish palette.
Both Lisa and Jody thought that the most beneficial part of the day was being able to observe the designers in their typical daily routines and be able to ask them questions about what to expect when they graduate and how to use the skills they are learning in school upon graduation. IA Interior Architects thought it was the most beneficial to be able to give back to the students and show them what their school experience is preparing them for.
From their experiences at IA Interior Architects, Jody is going to make sure that she takes as many classes in CAD and become a LEED accredited professional. Lisa really liked the team dynamic of the workplace and wants to try to incorporate that into her class work and classmates. IA Interior Archtects advised them to take as many classes as they could while in school in order to make themselves as marketable as possible upon graduation. They also emphasized the importance of internships and real life/work experience and to stay involved in organizations such as IIDA because of the programs and networking opportunities they offer.
Megan Sokolowske a Junior at Harrington College of Design spent the day with Bonnie Smith of BC Smith Design, a high-end residential design firm in Chicago. During their day together Megan learned about Bonnie’s portfolio of work, got a tour of her office and library, visited a job site and went to a rug company to find a rug for a client.
From her experience, Megan will be more prepared for what to expect when entering the profession. She knows that in order to be successful in her career she has to learn to be flexible and be able to multi-task.
