Cedarville Gains New Industrial Design Org

by Zach Krauss

Starting this semester, students can join a new student org on Cedarville’s campus for industrial design majors.

Rebecca Murch, sophomore industrial design major and secretary of the Org, said that during her first semester she really didn’t know many in her major. She said the purpose of the org is to get to know the other industrial design students so they will be more prepared for the second half of the program.

“We want to do something to just help everyone get comfortable build community,” Murch said.

The industrial and innovative design (IDES) program at Cedarville has a different format from other programs. For the first two years of the cycle, students are on campus following a typical degree plan. Once their junior year starts, the rest of the program is finished out at the industrial design campus in Columbus called the International Center for Creativity (ICC), which is a module-based learning institution that Cedarville’s Department of Art, Design and Theatre partners with.

The  dual-campus design of the program enables students to pursue specific realms of art and design that they otherwise would have to independently study at Cedarville. IDES is a group-oriented field, so getting to work with other students in class on projects and company pitches is part of the process of preparing students for the job field.

However, the dual-campus design also makes the transition between campuses challenging because students no longer have the pre-structured dorm community. Most students attending ICC live in apartments or rent houses, and choose roommates to help with housing costs before leaving Cedarville, which makes knowing underclassmen early vital for making living arrangements.

Allison Ramsey, a sophomore in the program, is the president of the org and was the one who originally came up with the idea for the org. She said that though IDES students all take similar classes in their major, they often end up only knowing each other through those classes and not outside of school.

Nate Lloyd, a freshman, said the org has been amazing to him so far. When he started his semester, Lloyd was only just beginning to meet people in classes. He said having people he can carpool with to Carnegie on campus as well as brainstorm ideas with has been extremely helpful.

“When we had our first dinner in Chuck’s, it was amazing,” Lloyd said. “We spent nearly two hours getting together and joking about fonts and pictures of bad designs.”

Emily Bader, also a freshman, said the organization helps clarify who fellow majors are when a lot of the students are busy taking general education classes. Bader said she’s grateful the org meets for dinner on Tuesday nights, so the group can often go together to Sketch Night, which is a weekly event hosted by the student art org, The Studio.

“I’m excited about the org because I’ll actually know people in my year once I head to the ICC in a few years,” Bader said. “I’m excited to see where the future leads this org so we can keep doing what we love.”

The members and officers of the org plan to do art-related trips, as well as meeting at coffee shops to share ideas and socialize.

“We’re going to be meeting each week for dinners to get to know each other better,” Murch said, “and we’re also looking at maybe taking some trips to museums or even doing things that aren’t related to art, just for fun.”

Meghan Burns, a freshman, is the vice president of the org. She says one of the things she’s most excited about is the ability to network with the people she’s going to be around for the entire last half of her education.

“Being able to find people we want to live with in Columbus now is something that I think will be really helpful,” Burns said. “We’re going to be spending so much time together, I’m glad we can grow together as an org earlier than later.”

Zach Krauss is a junior pharmacy/music double major from central Texas and campus reporter for Cedars. He loves music, theatre, biology, community, and meeting new people.