Interior design students from a Tennessee school helped rebuild in Haiti following the 2010 earthquakes that shook the region.
Students from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville worked together to design and build a brand new school for displaced students in the region shortly after the massive earthquake occurred.
The project, dubbed the Haiti Project, is ongoing and helps to get poverty stricken students off of the devastated streets and back into the area’s education system. Many of the school children’s families were also devastated by the earthquake in January of 2012.
The interior design students and others are dedicated to their project, which is based on research developments and properly planning a facility that fits the needs of those in the area. Professor John McRae is heading up the project at the school and his team helped produce the blueprints for the designs and construction of the new school.
The school will house 500 students and should be open to students in the area in the fall of this year. According to UT’s online newspaper, McCrae said that the school’s interior design and architecture students will work with the community in Haiti to design a school that will work best in their community.
“Our team seeks to improve and uplift Haitian lives, offering our commitment to education by providing the opportunity for betterment through learning,” he said. He went on to say, “our intention is to work directly with the Haitian community, through a ‘boots on the ground’ approach by providing professional support and guidance while also collaborating with the country’s leaders as they and their Haitian colleagues implement their vision.”
Many of the students at UT are working on this project according to their article, including interior design, civil engineering, chemical engineering, landscaping, and architecture students.
