CAP Students Get a Leg Up With Hands-On Experience
by Alia Blackburn
MUNCIE, Ind. – For Ball State student Cassie Damerchant, her immersive learning class in the College of Architecture is what counts.
“In this experience, everything is real life,” she said.
For Damerchant and her fellow CAP classmates, her semester has been devoted to the makeover of the Tot Spot, a play area designed for infants to toddlers in the Muncie Children’s Museum.
“I’m really grateful for this experience,” CAP student Anna Deripaska said. “This kind of experience you really can’t get by just sitting in a classroom, and just drawing something out.”
Students have spent time in and out of the classroom to plan, construct and build certain areas and stations in the “Tot-Spot”. Students said they enjoy the time out of the regular “studio time” to use their hands, work with real materials and to work for real clients.
“I’m a senior now, so all of this is really different from the studio I’ve been working in for the past three years,” CAP student Eric Beaman said. “Instead of just sitting on a computer and designing stuff, I get to work with my hands and build things.”
While applying skills they have learned in the classroom into real life construction, the students said they also get the experience of dealing with real budgets, meeting real deadlines and communicating with real vendors.
“You really begin to appreciate when companies treat you like adults instead of just regular college students,” Deripaska said. “You appreciate when vendors take the time to explain things to you in a learning process.”
While continuing to work and put the finishing touches on the Tot Spot, some students have walked out with a lot more than just something to add on their resumes.
“This experience has helped me tremendously with my communication skills,” Damerchant said. “It’s also helped me transition into not only wanting to do architecture, but to do exhibit design or to do something with children in a museum, which I really have enjoyed.”
