How one group of students is staying connected and creating content for real-world clients during their summer break
For many students, summer is a time to put their laptops aside and take a much-deserved break from studying. But as vital as it is to relax and recharge, maintaining some semblance of structure and keeping their skills sharp is important, too. That’s why Touro Professor Kevin Sartain created his Summer Design Lab, where students have the chance to work on projects and problem-solve in a group setting—and even get the opportunity to build their portfolios and work with prospective clients.
“I’ve been wanting to do this for many years,” Sartain explains. “With all of this weirdness we’re going through, working from home and teaching on Zoom, I decided this was the perfect time to give it a go.” Though the program was originally intended to focus on web design — Sartain teaches web design — it organically turned into a general design lab, where both undergraduate and graduate students work on a variety of projects.
“I’ve got about 13 students, and we meet once a week, on Wednesday afternoons, for an hour or two,” says Sartain. “We’re creating an online gallery to showcase the best work from both the grad and undergrad programs, and we’re also working on a bunch of marketing flyers for Touro. It’s really cool, because it’s different from their regular classes,” he says. “Instead of just creating things for their portfolios, they’re actually dealing with a client and creating something real.”