Field Trips

Field trip opportunities are an integral part of developing a design student’s vision of the diversity in the profession of interior architecture as well as design's importance to our culture. These field trips are typically taken in the third year and fourth year of your education. The cities we visit vary from year to year. Some the cities we have most recently traveled to are Chicago, Dallas, Austin, Grand Rapids and Denver.

Internships

An internship is an important component of your education. You will work directly at a firm with one or more of the areas included within your degree, for IARC: interior architecture or furniture design. Multi-disciplinary firms provide valuable opportunities for both degrees as do firms with specialties (i.e. exhibit or lighting design). During your internship, you maintain full-time academic standing by being enrolled in 14-credit hours of online courses. You will participate online with periodic postings and monthly reports. Upon returning to campus, you will participate in a college-wide internship exhibit and will speak to other students regarding your experience. Internships must be compensated experiences, and this can include various models such as hourly pay, tuition reimbursement, or paid room and board. For semester long internships, IARC will go during their 4th-year spring semester.

Education Abroad

Participants in IARC education abroad programs have the opportunity to select a program that has a focus in interior architecture or furniture design allowing students to pursue their field of interest. The following locations have programs that follow K-State’s semester schedule:

• Orvieto, Italy (Spring and Summer)
• Copenhagen, Denmark (Spring and Summer)
• Prague, Czech Republic (Spring)
• Other Approved Programs

The following locations have programs that do not follow K-State’s semester schedule and require additional planning:

• Coburg, Germany
• Trier, Germany
• Other Approved Programs

KCDC

Another alternative for an off-campus experience is studying for a semester at the Kansas City Design Center (KCDC). This center supports educational initiatives that help build public awareness of the factors that influence the character of the public realm. The KCDC also works to strengthen the educational experience of future design practitioners by engaging university faculty and students with real-world issues facing Kansas City’s built environment.

Educational programs are built around their resident urban design studio, through which faculty and students form partnerships with local client groups to develop design concepts and implement proposals addressing major architectural, urban design and urban planning issues throughout the Kansas City metropolitan.