Service Learning Experience Reflection

 Carly Gonia

Service Learning Project

On September 24^th I, and 9 other classmates were able to help out with the building of a family’s home. The home when we had arrived was already structured. It consisted of a garage, kitchen, small living and dining area, laundry room, 2 bedrooms, a bathroom and then the master bedroom and master bathroom. The first part that we participated in was to install insulation in all of the walls. Some were able to fit just straight into the walls but others needed to be cut down. There would be times where we had to resize things more than once. Luckily we all had gloves so we weren’t itching there but after a while my arms started to itch a little. It took about 2 and half hours for the entire house to be filled with insulation. The next step was to secure the floors with more sturdiness by power drilling more drills into the floors so that they were fully pressed down. As you were power drilling you could see a big difference before and after because the floor was sticking up quite a bit more than if you had powered drilled.  I would switch off power drilling and vacuuming the floor. I had a great experience being able to not only help out a family but learn a lot about the process work of building a home. It was especially interesting to learning these types of things in class, such as the light frame construction, and then being able to see it in person.  Another thing was power drilling the nails to make sure that the floor was level and there were no tripping hazards.  My sorority actually is now teamed up with Habitat for humanity and we have to do all of our community service hours through their options. So with knowing that I’m almost positive that I will get the chance to help build more homes.

ID 277 Field Trip

For one of my Interior Design classes we spent a week in Seattle visting different firms and companies such as tile, paints, and furniture. Our first stop as at the Seattle Design Center where we went into a few of the show rooms. They were all so different and I learned a lot from what each person had to say and even give advice for us. The next couple of days we continued to go to different show rooms and learn a lot of process work and such.
On Friday, our second to last day, our class split up and we each went to a design firm one on one and were able to shadow a designer for a while. The design firm that I was lucky enough to visit was Dawson Design Associates. They are a very small firm with about 14 designers and 3 architects. They were all very busy and the place was filled with so much things, such as process work, furniture dimensions on walls, fabrics, etc. The firm mainly focuses on hotels, resorts, spas etc. And they are usually upgrading what has already been put. Making 2 star hotels into 5 star hotels. I was able to see their materials library and learn a lot about process work. I was very fortunate to get the chance to visit this fabulous firm. Below are a few of their works that they have done. All of which are amazing.

 Picture from DawsonDesignAssociates.com
Alexis Hotel in Seattle
 Picture from DawsonDesignAssociates.com
Hotel Deca in Seattle

Picture from DawsonDesignAssociates.com

Paradise Point Resort and Spa in San Diego

On our last day we went to a beautiful chapel called Chapel of St. Ignatius in seattle and we sketched the chapel for a few hours. Here are a few sketches of mine: