Eight days into the fall semester, fourth-year students of the Design Leadership Program pitched creative projects to include in their final Modern portfolio–an essential milestone in the Modern experience.

Led by Instructors Matthew Flick and Paul Garcher, a panel of design experts listened as students shared goals for their future design careers, new business concepts, and ideas for software, apps, events, sports marketing, digital design, and more.

Several students plan to expand the business plan they created in the Entrepreneurship course to include branding, environmental design, e-commerce, and digital advertising. Student Ashlyn Dressman pitched developing branding elements to support her start-up, Tuft Cooki Rugs, a company she recently started that has grown from an online presence to a brick-and-mortar store with monthly pop-ups.

Many students shared a desire to impact the world through design and pitched solving problems that significantly impacted their lives. After finishing a summer internship with IBM, Student Emily Legg presented several innovative ideas and stressed in her presentation the importance of “making people’s lives and jobs easier” through design.

Instructors will now help students select a final project and incorporate the panelists’ feedback into their work. Students will finalize their portfolios throughout the fall semester.

The Modern will display the students’ portfolios at Reveal, an annual exhibition of Modern student work, on May 2, 2023. Stay tuned to The Modern’s social channels for event details this spring.

To learn more about the Design Leadership Program, visit themodern.edu/about/bachelors-program.