Enrichment Scholarship Recipient
Stephanie Pressler – University of California, Davis

Designer’s Statements

I am grateful that I was able to study design at a major research-based institution. It is an environment that allowed me to experience courses outside of my discipline and learn from professors and classmates who think in ways completely new to me. It is why I also majored in communication. I enjoy the balance between the open creativity of design and the structure and organization of communication.

The way I see it, there is something particularly different about designers. Most disciplines encourage individuals to study and research to get to a conclusion. Many people can do research to get to the same result. However, research will not lead to one clear answer in design, because there is no single right answer. Instead, exploration and experimentation are what lead to discovery. Since each person’s path and process to breakthrough is distinct to who they are, it is unlikely that any two people who start at the same point will end at the same design result. Thus, as designers, we generate and create newness through everything we do. If a designer does not do something, it may never be done.

It excites me to know that what I create is true and unique to me and no one else. I hope to continue to devise my own routes to new ideas and think about the world in fresh and original ways. I would like to learn new techniques as well as create my own methods to develop design solutions. I aspire to always balance my understanding of the world with the perceptions that others have of it, and be able to learn from them and our environments.