Interior Design Department preparing students for professional success

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A new visitor to a lab in VCU’s Department of Interior Design is briefly met with polite smiles before the rows of faces return to their computer monitors. Nobody is surfing the Internet or e-mailing friends. Each student is simply locked into the latest project on their screen.

Sharran Parkinson, Ph.D., chair of Interior Design at VCU, uses words like “rigorous” and “demanding” to describe the curriculum in the Interior Design program. The hard work has paid off. The department was ranked in three categories this year in DesignIntelligence’s annual publication, America’s Best Architecture and Design Schools. The graduate interior design program was ranked No. 4 by regional firms of schools in the South and No. 6 by national firms, and the undergraduate program was ranked No. 5 by regional firms in the South.

Parkinson said the recognition was rewarding, particularly coming from professional design firms. She said it illustrated the department’s success in teaching students professional skills and in integrating high-tech advances in design with the traditional hand-drawn techniques that have long been in favor.

Parkinson said the department is blessed with dedicated faculty members that put an emphasis on the academic aspect of the study of interior design, but who also keep students focused on the practical implications of their work.

“We expect our students to be just as devoted as we are,” Parkinson said. “And the students here are very serious and very engaged in what they do. If you don’t want to be challenged, it’s not a good place to be.”

Read more about interior design classes on www.interiordesignerclasses.com