Tulsa Tech Students Win Design Competition
By JOHN HUNTER
Interim Superintendent
WINNING DESIGNERS: The Tulsa Tech interior design team of Paxton Stieber (left) and Caitlin Coody (right) recently won the state title and are preparing to compete in the national event later this summer in Orlando, Florida.
Courtesy Tulsa Tech
Tulsa Tech’s interior design team recently won first place in the state interior design competition with Oklahoma Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA). Tulsa Tech FCCLA members, Caitlin Coody, a Skiatook high school senior, and Paxton Stieber, a Broken Arrow high school junior, will now travel to Orlando, Florida to compete in a national competition later this summer.
The two students were given one week to produce a design for the interior living space of a specifically styled home.
“We had to design for a shotgun-style house,” Steiber explained. “This type of house is typically only 12-feet wide with each room located directly behind the other.”
The student’s winning entry used a combination of screening techniques to separate the rooms along with efforts to maximize available storage space within the various living areas.
“Interior design isn’t just about choosing the right colors or deciding on what goes well together,” Coody explained. “It also includes making sure that the design works within the available space and also fits the needs of the client.”
Although these two students attend different high schools during the afternoon, they combined their talents and strengths every morning at Tulsa Tech to develop, plan, and practice their award-winning design skills.
“I think Caitlin and I work really well together because we’re so much alike,” Steiber said. “It’s certainly easier to work on a design, and then present it to the judges, when we’re both able to complete each other’s sentences.”
Jennifer Alpe, Interior Design instructor at Tulsa Tech, thinks both girls will be successful in whatever future education and career experiences they choose.
“Caitlin has really developed into a budding interior designer with the architectural drafting and rendering skills of a college student,” Alpe said. “And Paxton has great leadership qualities with absolutely no inhibitions about speaking in public.”
These two state champions are excellent examples of the many high school students within the metro area that attend Tulsa Tech not only to learn new career fields, but also become involved in one of the many student organizations which offer numerous opportunities to expand their leadership potential and develop skills for life. We are very proud of Caitlin Coody and Paxton Stieber for winning the state competition, but more importantly, we’re proud of the example they set each day as successful students.
FCCLA is one of the many organizations available to Tulsa Tech students. It is a nonprofit national career and technical student organization for young men and women currently studying career opportunities related to family and consumer sciences. The FCCLA student organization has over 190,000 members in nearly 6,500 chapters in all 50 states.
If you’re currently looking for quality business and industry training, exciting classes for high school students, or would simply like to design a new career, contact Tulsa Tech by calling 918-828-5200 or visit online at www.tulsatech.edu.
Updated 05-21-2012
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