May 17, 2021 Creativity Drives Design Students Leading After-School Club
Written by Brian Canever, UT News & Information_
In the true Volunteer Spirit, our students share their passion for design with middle schoolers.
Every Thursday afternoon during the 2020-2021 school year, Johnathan Woods, a graphic design major and May 2021 graduate from Hendersonville, Tennessee, and three of his classmates ran a virtual after-school design club for students at Knoxville’s Vine Middle Magnet School. They planned and delivered lessons—from designing music album covers and sneakers to animated GIFs and high-fashion clothing—that showed middle schoolers the wide scope of career opportunities available in the design world.
The decision to create DUUNK (Design Understanding U Need to Know) at Vine Middle originated with Sarah Lowe, a professor in the College of Architecture and Design. It gives students real-world experience in both designing and teaching design.
Since the club is expected to continue indefinitely, each semester new students will work with experienced ones to ensure continuity and allow Vine Middle students to develop relationships with their design mentors.
Through DUUNK, students in the college are learning they have much to offer the world through design, and the students at Vine Middle are learning that an interest could become linked to a career.
Read the full story about this mentorship program.
