Continuing the Olivet tradition of combining the theory and practice of ministry, Olivet College of Art and Design students are making good use of internship opportunities this semester.  OCAD’s collaboration with Olivet University’s Research and Development department is resulting in numerous student projects for Christian organizations around the world. 

Guided by the R&D lead designer, student interns are applying classroom to create designs for top Christian organizations with important messages for the global Christian community, including the Evangelical Alliance of Kenya, World Evangelical Alliance, International Council for Evangelical Theological Education, and Global Mission Consultation “Tokyo 2010.”  Their completed internship projects are seen by thousands of people, enabling student designs exposure on an international scale.

R&D Director Mark Li acknowledges the importance of real-world experience.  "In the classroom, you can receive a lot of theory, but unless you have the practical training, it is hard to become a professional designer.  It is a win-win situation for both the students and Christian ministries,” said Li.

Certain classes such as GD330 Interactive Design help prepare students for work in the design field.  The course focuses on making it easier to access web information by designing websites around a user’s browsing behavior.

“There is more to design than making something look pretty,” said Diana Yoo, OCAD associate director. “It’s also important to make it easy for the users to obtain or understand a message with well organized content.”

This semester’s internship experiences are equipping students with these and other essential understandings, which are needed especially for communicating effectively Christian messages in the age of information.