The spring semester at NC State University’s European Center in Prague started with 52 students who were enthusiastic and engaged in their classes. They were also participating in various optional activities like Czech cooking classes, cultural events, as well as meet-and-greet staff coffee meetings.
The center had recently hired new faculty to teach the large cohort of students from the College of Design. The faculty were impressed by the hard-working, talented group and had started discussions about a public exhibition of their final work at a local gallery. But, the semester came to an abrupt halt because of the global pandemic, and the staff worked tirelessly to get the students back from spring break and out of Prague.
“At the same time, we also needed to get online, so our students could finish the semester,” explained NC State Prague Director Kim Strozewski. “It worked well, but we wanted the students to still somehow experience a ‘final exhibition’ of their work.”
So, the faculty and staff came up with the idea of using a web platform to showcase the students’ final projects. The faculty uploaded the works after finals week, and the center launched the exhibition during a final goodbye video conference where all of the staff and most of the students and faculty joined via Zoom.
Andy Hilts, a student in the College of Design, also put together an online catalog of the work done by the students who took the Fashion Photography course with him during the spring semester.
