Celebrating Undergraduate Design Fellows

Smith student Philip Peker ’18 writes about the Design Fellows Graduation Celebration on Dec. 12, 2016, at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business

On Monday, Dec. 12, the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business hosted the Design Fellows Graduation Celebration for seniors in the Strategic Design Fellows Program. Each year, the juniors in the program curate and plan the event, with the guidance of the program champion, Mary Harms, clinical associate professor of marketing. This year, I planned the event with Charlotte Li, Jordan Steiner, Sara Linder, Katie Zeng. After much deliberation, the theme of “Art Gallery” was chosen to provide the Fellows students the opportunity to showcase their talents in all areas, from graphic design and illustration, to sound design and origami.

The event kicked off with a beautiful sampling of hors d’oeuvres and refreshments, accompanied by live acoustic music. As guests arrived, the room began to buzz with excitement. Besides juniors, seniors, and Fellows Program faculty, there were Some Design Fellows alumni in attendance.

The open, circular layout of the Executive Dining Room encouraged attendees to explore artwork, taste great food and mingle with one another. As the crowd made its way around the room (and more obviously, the table of food), a slideshow of student work played in the back, displaying the creative pursuits of the multi-talented students.

“I love getting to know the students as they grow through the Design Program. It really makes me happy when I still get emails from them about promotions, cool projects they’re working on, and how much the Design Program has impacted their lives after graduation,” says Mary Harms, faculty champion of the program. Professor Harms’ involvement in the well-being of her students is very evident, as the students become attached to the program and the alumni keep coming back every year to share their experiences with younger designers.

I had the chance to speak with Melissa Fleischmann, recent graduate of the Design Fellows Program who now works at IBM in the Federal Cognitive Solution Sales Department. Although a technology company that relies heavily on quantitative sciences, IBM is also known for its innovative design and strategic position in the industry. Melissa contended that she does use design thinking even at a technical firm like IBM. “Much of my job entails ‘selling’ the concept of Watson to business and government organizations, and so there is a lot of design thinking and innovation that happens even just around how we brand and package Watson as a product,” she says.

The beauty in the Design Fellows program is that it equips students with a wide variety of skills, so that students are not limited to just working in the advertising industry upon graduation. There is a growing demand for workers that not only know how to solve business problems, but can do so in a creative, sustainable, and strategic way.

What you put into the program is what you get out. The harder you work on your designs, the better your portfolio is going to look. The link between work you do in the classroom and the work you will be doing professionally is very visible, and this excites many students. “Going through this first semester of Design Fellows has added a significant amount of graphic design and branding work to my design portfolio, and I’ve already met some amazing people along the way,” says Charlotte Li, Design Fellows student and marketing major.

This program encourages real-world application of theories and skills learned in the classroom. It espouses interdisciplinary, cross-functional work that summons a very authentic, global mindset. Taking from art history, design principles, consulting, retail strategy, psychology, and more, the Strategic Design Fellows program looks to foster the next great wave of creative leaders that will not only define what’s cool, but look cool doing it.

The evening wrapped up with the awarding of certificates to the graduating seniors, who were showing, some more visibly than others, a slight reluctance to let go of the program that helped them find themselves professionally.

Applications for Strategic Design & Innovation Fellows for 2017-18 are now open. Deadline to apply is February 13^th.  The Smith School offers 15 unique Fellows programs. For more details on all of them, go to the Smith Fellows website.