Rice Design 2020–2022

Role

Founder and President

Team

17 member officer team (2021),
14 member officer team (2022)

Skills

Leadership, management, teaching/training

Timeline

2 years
August 2020–May 2022

Rice Design is an undergraduate club that provides the space and community to learn about the tech-design world.

RD organizes workshops, speaker events, and competitions for those interested digital design*.

*Product design, graphics and illustration, branding and marketing, frontend development.

Problem statement

There is a lack of design education and resources at Rice, making design an inaccessible career path

Goal

Create a community that provides resources for students to pursue digital design.

Mission

Connect, educate, and celebrate designers at Rice

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The four founding members (me, Elena Margolin, Nini Nguyen, and Sarah Han) got to work right away to make this dream come true.

What we do

Connect (aspiring) designers by creating community

We fostered a curious, welcoming community of designers by providing mentorship through in-person and online groups.

Due to the pandemic, our first year was completely remote delivery. We created a Discord channel that accumulated over 200 members!

In 2021, we transitioned back to in-person events, which made it much easier to build meaningful connections and strengthen our existing mentorship base.

Educate students about design and advocate for its importance

Mary Haws

We've hosted 29 workshops and speaker events with industry professionals. These covered a variety of topics, ranging from career advice to design practices to software tutorials.

Celebrate designers on campus by recognizing their work

Mary Haws, Nini Nguyen

Newton Huynh

To show off our student body’s talented designers, we hosted various design competitions, collaborated with HackRice to sponsor a design track in their hack-a-thon, and created a HUGE merch launch.

Rice Design Merch

Our merchandise line – designed, modeled, and managed by Rice designers–was made to bond Rice students together through collective memories and a common love for the campus.

In both launches, I co-coordinated the merchandise with Elena Margolin, the Vice President of Rice Design. We oversaw creative direction, logistics, finances, marketing, and distribution.

See our full campaign on Rice Design Merch Instagram or browse our online store.

Static and dynamic content editin

Fall 2021 Line

Design and graphic: Christina Zhou
Photography: Newton Huynh, Arinze Appio-Riley
Edits: Cindy Sheng

Design: Elena Margolin
Graphic: Mary Haws , Miyu Zheng
Photography and editing: Newton Huynh

Design: Elena Margolin
Graphic: Stuti Mehta
Photography: Newton Huynh
Edits: Newton Huynh, Cindy Sheng

Videography: Newton Huynh

Spring 2021 Line

Design and graphic: Nina Lahoti
Photography: Arinze Appio-Riley

Design and graphic: Christina Zhou
Photography: Ezabel Zhou

Design: Christina Zhou
Photography: Arinze Appio-Riley
Graphic: Nini Nguyen

Results

These are just some ways to quantify what we did over two years, but the amount of true joy and fulfillment that I received from this club is immeasurable.

Club milestones

200+ general body members
29 workshop/speaker events
Two amazing merch launches
Transition from online to in-person
Collabs with other Rice clubs & universities
Sponsorship package
Website

Personal milestones

Undergraduate Student Organization President of the Year, 2021
An incredible experience interacting with talented and inspiring designers <3

Next steps

Rice Design has been handed off to an extremely capable team. This year, they are working on increasing general member involvement, sponsorship outreach, and hosting our own design-at-thon! I am excited to see what this new team accomplishes.

Lessons learned

Look for passion

When I started the club, I had two months of design experience under my belt. What drove me was passion, and I knew I wanted teammates that matched or exceeded my energy. Each round of officer applications, my team and I prioritized finding people with this spark, and I can say for sure that our club has greatly benefited from the proactivity and eagerness that comes with it.

Members first

My team usually begins the year filled with ideas for events we want to host. Our excitement often results in an overestimation of our own bandwidth and a foresight on what our members want. I’ve learned to champion the events that serve our audience best.

Multi-layered thinking

Managing an organization with many moving parts requires higher-level thinking: team alignment, delegation, and frequent check ins. On the flip side, there were smaller things that I didn’t foresee encountering. This position challenged me to consider all edge cases and details while keeping the big picture in mind.

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