Dear SCAD students, faculty and staff,
Welcome Back! I hope everyone is refreshed, rejuvenated and ready for what continues to be a remarkable 2010-2011 academic year. Many of you contacted me over winter break to share your plans, your ideas and your SCAD experiences. In almost every letter and email, you mentioned how profoundly traveling affects your studies and work.
Off-campus study has always been an integral part of SCAD and always will be. The destinations have changed over the years, and some have been more in-demand than others. We respond to student interest, and that trait of being “in-tune” will continue. We have studied the highest-response destinations and reviewed student evaluations to determine short-term plans, which will continue to evolve as student needs and interests dictate.
Some of the most impassioned correspondence I receive is from students, faculty and staff whose lives have been transformed by studying at another SCAD campus, including hundreds of eLearning students who decide to take courses at a physical SCAD location. SCAD students move among campuses all the time. Over the past academic year, more than 1,000 students have studied at more than one SCAD location. This averages out to more than 250 students a quarter. It’s an easy process. You don’t have to reapply to SCAD, and the tuition is the same.
Since SCAD Lacoste was established, close to 1,500 SCAD students and faculty have studied, taught and been inspired by the magical environs of France’s Luberon Valley. This year, students will have the opportunity to take classes in varied disciplines, from art history and architecture to interior design, painting and photography.
In Hong Kong, students from SCAD Atlanta and SCAD Savannah gain inspiration from the modern and centuries-old elements that exist side-by-side on every street. At SCAD Atlanta, more than 100 students from SCAD Savannah are being inspired and informed by the city’s cosmopolitan pace and the relationships the university enjoys with corporations such as CNN, Chick-fil-A and Coca-Cola. Conversely, almost 100 students from Atlanta are drawing inspiration from Savannah’s historic landscape and university collaborations with companies from Gulfstream to JCB. And those thousands of eLearning students? They’re being inspired by their locations, too, some as far away as Yemen, others as close as next door.
I encourage every SCAD student to spend a quarter or two, or maybe even a year, in Savannah, Atlanta, Lacoste, Hong Kong, or online. Gain new friends, new perspectives and fresh ideas that will take your work to unimaginable heights. Especially, make entirely new sets of professional connections that will help you secure your dream job.
Wherever you’re studying or teaching, send me an email, a letter, a video clip, a picture, a postcard. SCAD students, staff and faculty at all locations and online are the university’s ambassadors to the world, sharing the SCAD story far and wide, and I would love to hear yours.
Sincerely,
President Paula Wallace