The Daily O’Collegian

OSU department seeks to expose more students to unique opportunity in 2008

The OSU Design, Housing and Merchandising Department is offering more credit hours for its summer 2008 trip to Northern Italy.

“In the past we were offering only three credits,” said Theodore Drab, associate professor and interior design program coordinator.

DHM undergraduate students now have the opportunity to acquire six college credits while in Italy. The department will offer DHM 4423 Heritage III, and DHM 5810 Design, Housing and Merchandising in Northern Italy this summer.

Paulette Hebert,  DHM department head, said, “We have been charged with the goal to expose more students to a global experience.”

Not only is DHM encouraging a global learning experience, but the OSU/A&M Board of Regents and OSU President Marlene Strathe are also endorsing it. This year, the board supported the goal that 100 percent of OSU graduates have an international education experience.

“This goal is not only attainable, but clearly within the mission of our University,” Strathe wrote in her “Message from the President” newsletter published Sept. 17.

The first DHM Italy trip was in the summer of 2004, with Drab at the helm.  Each trip is made possible by Cassamarca Foundation in Italy.  One of the major goals of the foundation is to inform university students, from around the world, about what is going on in northern Italy.

“It’s a very intense experience, but very fulfilling,” Drab said.

During May, students begin their three-week Italian excursion, where they stay in a convent-turned-school in the city of Treviso, just outside Venice.

Students’ days are filled with tours of various factories, manufacturers, and stores, allowing them to see many aspects of design and production.  They also tour museums, write reports, keep a sketchbook and study the language.

However, it is not all work; students do get free time to explore the cities and towns on their own.

Natalie Roller, an interior design senior, said the trip was exciting.

“I loved getting to see some of  the actual things I learned about in class,” Roller said.

While wanting to study abroad is one thing, affording it is quite another.  Fortunately, scholarships are available for students who wish to participate in a study abroad program.

“Scholarships paid for quite a bit of my trip,” Roller said.

Roller earned awards from the OSU Study Abroad Office, the College of Human Environmental Sciences, and the International Interior Design Association (IIDA)-Texas/Oklahoma chapter.

The DHM Italy trip allows for more than the opportunity to further students’ knowledge about interior design, apparel design or merchandising, it gives them the chance to be immersed in another culture.

“I am so thankful that I got to be a part of such an amazing learning experience,” Roller said. “Everyone should do it.”