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What drew you to interior architecture as your major?
Talking to the head of the department and seeing what more you can do with this major. You don’t necessarily have to go into interior architecture. You can do things like fixture development, you can do graphics, you can do customer interaction kinds of things. But I like to do 3-D things. I like to think of interior architecture as an installation piece. People can come in and walk around it. That’s what really drove me to come into this major. I liked the idea of affecting people in a positive manner.

What did your foundation year instruction do for you?
It really taught me how to draw because I’d never drawn before. So that was a big step. But it also taught me to do more with what I’m doing, to become more creative. So instead of just doing a drawing and leaving it as a drawing, flat on the table, like hanging it in different ways, explore more into materials.

What do you think of think of the neighborhood around CIA?
It’s changed a lot since I’ve been here, and it’s only going to get better. Since we’re right here by the botanical gardens, Museum of Contemporary Art, CMA and the natural history museum, there’s so much you can do and so many things you can use for inspiration. I try to go to those places a lot, not only because of the architecture of the building, but just because being inspired constantly is a nice thing. Instead of going online and looking up images, you can go to these places and physically see them. And there are just a lot of art galleries and art shows you can go to constantly.

What’s been the biggest surprise about your time at CIA?
How independent I’ve become as a student and as a person, just being able to push myself to go further — trying to start a business or start a website. You’re not forced to do a lot, but you can push yourself to do a lot.

What do you tell other students about what it’s like to go to CIA?
There are a lot of different majors you can do. It’s cool to see we still have printmaking around, and there’s still a drawing major. The community is very involved. And now we’re on one campus.