Over 50 students are set to travel with the School of Design this spring and summer to either Kansas City or the United Kingdom. 

Beverly Krumm and Peter Reichardt, lecturers in the School of Design, will be leading the travel study opportunities, which are the school’s biggest student engagement trips since the pandemic.

  Krumm’s travel study will be a weekend trip to experience Kansas City Design Week. She is taking 36 students, which she says is a large number. 

 “Thirty-six is quite large,” she said. “I was ecstatic when I hit 20!” 

 Reichardt is taking 23 students for a three-week trip to the United Kingdom. All the students enrolled are from School of Design programs, although any major can be involved.

He attributes the large number of students involved to countries being back open after COVID-19, and students are eager to “get back out there.” 

 Macie Geppert and Raena Visness, two sophomore graphic design majors, are traveling to the United Kingdom with Reichardt. They both said they are excited about studying overseas and were drawn to the U.K. trip to explore the country’s design culture and spend time with their friends. 

 “I’m hoping to bring back new design culture to incorporate into my work,” Geppert said. 

 Visness is looking forward to practicing drawing and sketching. She said she is going to bring back more knowledge about sketching architecture and sketching in the moment. 

 Since the travel studies are required for each of the School of Design majors, many students have had to hold out because of COVID. Krumm said many current seniors had planned to go on one of the three-week trips which kept getting canceled. The need for those students to get their credits helped boost the numbers too.

 These studies are just one appealing part of the SDSU design programs. Both Krumm and Reichardt said that the travel opportunities are more appealing to students whether it’s a deciding factor or not. 

 “It (SDSU) offered a major that involved two of my major interests, such as art and computer design,” Geppert said.

 Visness saw the school as a perfect fit for her personality.

 “The program fit my personality and it works well with other majors,” Visness said. She is double majoring in graphic design and public relations. 

 Krumm said the event staff was excited to host students from South Dakota because no one from the state has attended the conference. She said she’s excited to participate in different workshops during the trip. 

 Reichardt is excited to experience the trip with his students. 

 “It is really something special,” he said. “It’s quite a unique experience in regard to an educational experience because they are transplanted into this strange, new, fascinating place.”

 He says that he loves the culture and history that are present everyday and is excited to see the country through the students’ eyes, as most of them have not traveled outside the Midwest.

 “The wonderful thing about the U.K. is we don’t have a language barrier, and so it makes it a very approachable first-time international travel experience for students,” Reichardt said. 

  Reichardt agrees that the trips will help broaden students’ experiences. He said that traveling out of the U.S. will help students experience different cultures and be more confident in travel. 

 The trips will also help grow the School of Design. Reichardt said the trips will create growth toward networking through other schools. They will also grow the school’s outreach and opportunities. 

 Krumm said that she knows the School of Design has been growing as an important part of SDSU and hopes the numbers stay that way. 

 Krumm and Reichardt mentioned that the School of Design is very important to SDSU. Reichardt said that he can’t imagine a university that wouldn’t have a design program, because design is a very important component to everyday life and helps broaden studies and bring creativity to campus.