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"The ability to think straight, some knowledge of the past, some vision of the future, some urge to fit that service into the well-being of the community - these are the most vital things that education must try to produce." (thinkexist.com, community) When I came into this program I felt like an individual who was alone and didn't know what to expect. As the semester unfolded and the projects began I started finding new friends and people to interact with. I found very quickly that in this program, having supportive peers was essential to being successful and not as stressed out as I could be. I feel like we as first years have created our own little community in which we share the same types of interest and work loads. We know that although at times the road looks rough, our minds are set for what the future holds. We are each others motivations, as our goals are. More than anything, through this community, we have became friend's and I know that throughout these next 3 years we as a community will get stronger and continue to be supportive to each other. "Life is all about stewardship. It all belongs to God - he just loans it to us for a short period of time. The first command God gave to man was to take care of the Earth, which includes managing..." (thinkexist.com, stewardship) Although I have been in college for 4 years now, I can truly say that as a first year as an IARC student I have been forced to learn how to be a good [steward] over my time. In many other classes and majors, last minute work and half doing something usually will still get you by. In this major, last minute work causes a great amount of stress and I had to learn this the hard way. Now that it is the end of the semster, I can say that Im still not there yet as far as completely staying ahead of my work, but I have progressed tremendously. "There's nothing quite like the authenticity that comes with seeing a real person..." (thinkexist.com, authenticity) I must admit that some of the critiques and advice that was given to us from our professors was pretty harsh, and sometimes hurtful, but to be honest it was needed. One thing that I never really had in high school was teachers who pushed me to be better at everything that I was doing, and although having that would have made me work harder I really wish that could have been incorporated into my high school years. All of the professors and TA's that I have come into contact with have been both supportive and motivation to me a designer, there authencity is what set them apart from other teachers and professors that I've had, and I appreciate that. I feel like every ounce of criticism that I received was constructive and I benefited from it. "There are no dreams too large, no innovation unimaginable and no frontiers beyond our reach." (thinkexist.com, innovation) Throughout this semester I feel that one of the main goals that our professors have tried to instill in us is the ability to be [innovat]ive and have a mind to think for ourselves. My mindset was that we would immediately start to design interiors, and jump right into the main focuses of our major. I was definitely wrong. Our first project was to design a place for a leaf. Those types of projects that really made us use our brains seemed stupid then, but now I am grateful for those experiences because I have a broader view on the world of design, and how designers should be able to think outside of the box.


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