Live Well Collaborative . Co-Op Experiences . Kara Koch

Kara Koch, DAAP '10

As a design student at DAAP, we are privileged to be presented with many opportunities. One of these opportunities was my summer studio at LWC. Being a participant in a LWC studio allowed me, as a student, to experience working for a client while under the umbrella of a school work environment. Students were able to research and produce a final product in ten weeks. For the client, this is an extremely fast output, but for us it is just part of our intense work regime that all DAAP students incur. This experience allowed me to gain the knowledge of solving a real world design problem through working with consumers. The LWC interactions were unique and rarely experienced in my curriculum studios.

My studio experience at LWC led to a coop position with them for fall quarter. I am working with graduate students and industrial designers to produce a solution for LG Electronics. The heavily researched projects presented to the students and the push to under LWC. Being immersed in this type of forward thinking environment has been challenging but extremely enlightening.