Interior Design graduates embark on next stage of their careers

Interior Design graduates embark on next stage of their careers

Al Stover / Reporting and Photography

published in issue 41.12 of the SFCC Communicator

Jasmine Maxey and Kourtney Rice look over plans of the hospital floor they are putting together. They look through stacks of wallpaper, trying to find one that would match the hospital's patient profile.

Maxey and Rice are two of students who are graduating from SFCC's Interior Design program.

Students in the program can earn A.A.S in Interior Design, or a Interior Design Professional Diploma, according to the SFCC website.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment of people in the interior designers is expected go up 18 percent. Interior designers can make anywhere from over $20,000 to over $80,000 a year, depending on their specialty, experience, reputation, and employer.

As a child, Rice said she grew up in Oak Harbor, on construction sites with her parents. She said she researched a lot of public and private programs before settling on SFCC.

"Once I met with the program director, I was sold," Rice said.

Maxey had grown up in Port Angeles and had wanted to be an interior decorator when she was a little girl. After she had her baby, she and her husband talked about what she was going to do.

"My husband is a contractor, and interior design came up," Maxey said. "I took a test at SCC and it said I should be an interior designer."

Both Maxey and Rice learned that the interior design field is more technical than they had thought.
"It's nothing like the design shows, it's planning upon planning and very detail orientated," Rice said.

According to Maxey and Rice, they had learned the basic skills and knowledge in designing. In their second and third year, they worked on several residential and commercial projects.

"For a retail space, we redid the whole interior and gave the exterior a face lift," Maxey said.

In addition to learning about the technical aspects of interior design, Maxey said she learned how psychology can work into designing rooms for people.

"You learn how you function within a space and what decorations can increase comfort and lessen stress," Maxey said.

Rice said she also learned about different things from the projects the class worked on.

"When we worked on the hospital, I learned things about nursing and medicine that I didn't know before," Rice said.

Maxey is working with Womer and Associates, a Native American enterprise that specializes in architecture, engineering and environmental services, according to their website. She plans on attending Washington State University. She also said that SFCC’s Interior Design program was very time consuming and expensive.

"You don't have much of a social life, but you get to be so creative," Maxey said. "You get back what you put in."

Rice is currently doing an internship for Joanie Wick back home in Oak Harbor. She said there were moments when she had to remind herself why she had started the program.

"I had to get pass the stress," Rice said. "This program in itself has challenged me to become much more time efficient."


To read the story on the Communicator website follow the link


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How College has helped make me a better writer

Near the end of my senior year of high school, my step father suggested I put together the short stories I had written and send them in for publication.  I said no, because the only writing I had actually done at that time were fantasy stories for my creative writing class and articles in the school newspaper, all of which were not the quality of writing that should be even allowed on near a publisher's desk. 

Even as a aspiring high school graduate, I knew that if I wanted to be an accomplished fantasy writer, I needed to go to college and improve my writing.  For many reasons, this would be the smartest decision I ever made.

The benefit of going to college, especially Spokane Falls Community College, is that many of the professors I have had for my classes have real world experience as writers. They have given me advice and constructive criticism on the writing I submit to them for a grade.  They have also have given me interesting stories and tips they learned in their experiences in their careers.

Another thing college has done for my writing is that it's helped me be more open to other people reading my work.  In all of my classes that required writing assignments, I had to let one or more of my classmates read my drafts and review them.  This made me nervous at first because I thought that my writing would simply be trashed by my classmates either because my writing was not of good quality, or that what I had written had no interest to them. 

However, I quickly learned that my peers were not as merciless when it came to looking at my writing.  They gave their constructive criticism, like my professors, and suggestions to help improve my writing.  Much to my surprise my classmates seem to enjoy reading my writing.  I have also learned to critique my classmates papers in the same manner, offering them advice and complimenting them on their work.

Some of my college classes have had me go outside my comfort zone by introducing me to reading material and writing techniques that was new to me. 

Although fantasy and mystery are the genres I want to base my novels around, my journalism and English classes have pushed me towards the way of writers like Hunter S. Thompson, C.S. Lewis, Henry Fielding, and Jonathan Swift.  From these authors, as well as material covered in my sociology, psychology and history classes, I've drawn various ideas and have used them in my own short stories. 

By writing argumentative essays, after-pieces, and articles for the college newspaper, I have learned to do in-depth research on subjects I really like and even subjects that I don't have a particular interest in.  I have also learned to write in ways that were difficult for me at first, but have become easier with experience.

My professors have also suggested to me other ways I can branch out as a writer with the use of the Internet and multimedia for my stories.  They also suggested that I have a career to fall back on like teaching or public relations.

Although college has given me tools that I can use for writing, I still have improvement that I need to make before seriously devoting my time to a writing career.

Off the top of your head:

How has college or technical schools helped you towards your goals?  Is there anyone in school (teachers or peers) who has influenced you?

Rage in the cage

photo by Jarad Alexander

The gymnasium smelled of sweat and pizza as fans filled the bleachers and seats surrounding the six-sided cage. On the opposite side of the room, 22 competitors were preparing themselves for battle.

Northwest Fighting presented Spokane Showdown 18. The event took place on Nov. 7 at the East Central Community Center. The event featured 11 mixed martial arts bouts in front of an audience of all ages...


To read the rest of the story, visit the link below to the Communicator website. And be sure to check out the rest of the website.


Rage in the cage

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A fresh start

This quarter marks my 7th with the SFCC Communicator and once again I am a section editor. This time it is for the Flavors (Food and Drink) section of the paper. To say that I am a little excited is a bit of an understatement. I am ecstatic, not only because I get to preside over a section and help develop my design skills, but also because I feel like things are coming full circle.

Last year I was the Sports/Sidelines Editor for the first two quarters and then decided to give the reigns of to someone else. The person who I thought was originally going to take over my position ended up not doing it, mostly but I think was my fault, but I find it better not to ask those kind of questions and just move on. So Sidelines was taken over by one whom we all affectionately refer to as Breezy. I was her only writer, and while we survived the quarter, I felt less satisfied, not because of anything Breezy did. She was fantastic. It was because of my selfishness and my desire to "stand out" that caused my writing and my reputation to suffer.

Summer of 2009 was a bit of a fresh start for me. After passing perhaps two of the hardest classes I had taken at that time (Math 99 and Journalism 224) I was filled with new confidence and new self esteem. I had also undergone some living changes, which also helped towards this fresh start. I had also spent the Summer planning out different aspects of the Fantasy world that I am creating. Although I had only produced a few stories over those few months, I felt refreshed for the quarter.

When it came to rejoin the Communicator, I made sure to tone things down and not try to be that goofy guy in class and focused on what stories I would be writing. We have one of those guys already, and he ended up being my section editor.

One thing I feel I had wished I had done more that quarter was to take more of an interest in the new writers coming in. I kind of wished I had helped them a little bit more. And yet, when I look back at that quarter, I found myself rolling my eyes, not because of the issues that Hil, Sarah, and Madison had to address. It was the questions that were never asked by the new writers. It was also the questions that were asked, but were answered at the beginning of the quarter. Of course those people who weren't paying attention are gone and its a brand new day.

The stories I got to write that quarter were some of my best. I profiled people and classes who weren't profiled in the past, which included SFCC's Othotics and Prosthetics program, a student veteran, and a new club who went through the process of becoming an official campus club. I even got to cover a mixed martial arts event that included a title change and a girl fight.

At the risk of ending on a cliche note, I will say that while this quarter brings new challenges (I am asking myself "how does one go about writing food and drink) I will put my best foot foward, put on my game face, and work with my writers and hopefully produce some kick-ass work in the Flavors section this quarter.

Off the top of your head :

• While perusing a career, a goal, a dream, did you ever find yourself in a hard place? Were you able to get out of that place? What steps did you take to get back that drive and how did iteventually work out?

Here are a couple of links to the stories on the Communicator website

My Orthotics and Prosthetics piece "Helping Hands"
http://faculty.spokanefalls.edu/Communicator/sections/focus/stories/story_3.html

Joseph Engle's "Last Call" one of my favorite stories to come out of last quarter
http://faculty.spokanefalls.edu/Communicator/sections/focus/stories/last_call.html

Past Issues of the Communicator.
http://issuu.com/sfcccommunicator

Make sure you check out the rest of the Communicator website as it constantly updates and changes.

email me at sfcc.al.stover@gmail.com