Two UF students reached out to the Boys & Girls Club of Alachua County to make a big difference in a small way.
Advertising sophomore Stephanie Ou and architecture sophomore Sara Schwartz, both 19, teamed up in their Design Innovation class for the Make a Difference project. The project pushes students to use their interior design skills to provide helpful innovations to nonprofit organizations. The project is sponsored by the Interior Design Educators Council.
After abandoning their original idea because of budget restrictions — each pair of students could spend up to $40 on its innovation — Ou said she and Schwartz decided to create a reading corner.
“It was a good thing, because if we had a higher budget, we would go crazy,” Ou said. “I feel like the budget gave us restrictions that we needed, and I think that helps us with discipline. Just because you have the money, you shouldn’t go over budget.”
They chose to work with the Boys & Girls Club after Ou visited the organization and learned how open to the project the staff was. Ou and Schwartz were allowed to do whatever they wanted to make the difference they envisioned for the customer.
Ou said the Boys & Girls Club invites speakers and volunteers to read to the children who spend time there after school, but it did not have a suitable space for those occasions.
Ou and Schwartz used a partition to section off the reading area in one of the classrooms, put up inspirational posters and set up two beanbag chairs and a large rug. They spent $34 on their innovation.
UF professor and Department of Interior Design chairwoman Margaret Portillo said students were instructed to go out into the community to find organizations in need to increase the scope of their innovations’ impacts.
The original innovations aren’t always used in the way they were intended, she said, but by reaching out to those in need, UF students had the opportunity to make a difference in ways that may otherwise have been overlooked.
For Ou, the project became more than something she was doing for a grade. It was a chance to communicate with a real customer and give back to the community while learning something new about interior design and her own skills.
Schwartz and Ou went back after they finished the corner to see the impact it made.
“We were nervous to see how they were using it, but at the same time, the whole idea of the project was to see how they were using our innovation,” Schwartz said.
The Boys & Girls Club staff members and children gave the UF students positive feedback, she said.
One boy admired the pictures of UF that lined the walls, and a girl complimented the beanbag chairs.
“It was great, even though it wasn’t like ‘Extreme Home Makeover,’” Ou said. “Just making that small space, me and Sara were really proud, and we were really happy at the end.”
