Students Study Abroad For New Insights and Hands-On Experience
Spring semester at the school of Industrial Design is a frenzy of students rushing to get passports and rain jackets. It’s not because they’re getting ready for spring break on a deserted island in the Bahamas, but because they’re going to Ireland and Scotland. Each year the school offers a study abroad program in Ireland for its students to gain new insights and experience Industrial Design in a different light.
Approximately 20 students from the school of Industrial Design at Auburn embarked on this unique, hands-on study abroad program in Ireland and Scotland in spring semester of 2007. Along with site seeing and learning about the rich culture of the United Kingdom, students were able to obtain hands on experience in studios located in different culture settings than their own.
Mary Catherine Clem, a third year Industrial Design student, left the cold yet familiar studios on Donahue to experience life outside the Auburn bubble. Places such as Dublin, Ballyvaughan, Cork, and Killarney were a few of the Irish cities the program offered because of the rich culture and different perspectives for Industrial Design products.
From the rolling fields of Ireland to the torrential rain in Scotland, Clem worked in studios with students from various universities in Ireland and Scotland to gain experience from working with students with different tastes and backgrounds. “It wasn’t that they were more advanced than us, it was that they had a completely different curriculum,� said Clem. Students in Ireland were more familiar with the Industrial Design computer programs because of the difference in classes, while Auburn students seemed to be better at sketching, Clem said.
Not only did Clem and her fellow classmates work with current Industrial Design students from Ireland, but they also had a taste of corporate life by visiting companies to observe what the real corporate world was like outside the classrooms and studios. Touring Design Factor and Seymour Powell, two prestigious designing consultants in Ireland, students were able to receive professional advice on how to design products and present them in a professional way.
Although Clem’s enthusiastic smile when talking about her trip abroad would imply it was all play and no work, this wasn’t the case. Students were asked to pick a concentration for a seminar project that would be due after studying abroad. “I chose people for my concentration because the people there were new and unfamiliar to me and I thought it would be a challenge,� said Clem.
This Industrial Design program is not the only study abroad opportunity that’s driving students to pack their suitcases, give mom and dad a kiss goodbye and travel across seas. Several other programs are offered to students outside the College of Industrial Design. Programs such as AIFS Study Abroad and CEA have collaborated with Auburn to provide a broad range of study abroad opportunities ranging from English speaking countries to Asian countries. What made the Industrial Design study abroad program along with other study abroad opportunities appealing to students was not only the reasonable price that’s lower than out-of-state tuition, but also the experience and variety of credit hours and courses that are for specific majors and subjects of interest depending on the country.
Whether students study abroad to see the world from a different perspective or add another item to a resume, studying abroad is one of the many hands-on training programs Industrial Design students receive and one of the many opportunities Auburn has to offer its students.
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