I’m Robin from Zurich in Switzerland. My major is Strategic Design and Management, which is the only BBA in Parsons. My interest in these studies conclude through my intention to be creative in implementations of daily economic tasks. Before I came to Parsons I went to an economics based high school in Switzerland. Therefore, I already have some knowledge about the business part of my studies and have more time to focus on the development of my creative skills. I’m already 22 years old, because I decided to work and travel first before I started college, to get to know myself a little better.
The first year at Parsons was a very good experience for me. It was useful to get comfortable to the educational English language and understand how Parsons works. Similarities within the two semesters are the creative influenced projects and the understanding of Parsons educational requirements, for example how to write a research paper or how to cite in Chicago style. On the other hand are the differences, such as the rising level of intensity and educational subject matter in the second semester and also differing instructors. It was a challenge for me to get used to a professors teaching style right away, especially considering details in the submission of assignments.
In my first year I had two personal highlights. The first one was after we submitted our first assignment in semester one. I wasn’t sure if my English skills suffice and if I will be able to keep up with my classmates. Surprisingly, I got very good feedback on my writing, not only because of creative ideas, but also because of a good structure and solid use of the English language. Resulting out of this first highlight were excellent grades for the first semester. Moreover, I found back to my pleasure in writing.
My second personal highlight was the first bridge assignment in the second semester. We had to write a diary entry every day for seminar and respond to those entries with drawings, collages or whatever we wanted to for the studio class. This exercise catapulted me right back into my school brain after the break and kept me aware of my environment, because I was constantly looking for material for another diary entry. Furthermore, the outcome was rather substantial and opened up a many different paths to take for my second semester.
To sum up, the first semester at Parsons was really helpful and interesting for me. After all the assignments we’ve done this first year, I can say that most of my energy was put into the topic gentrification. I want to go deeper with the issue of gentrification and explore more about its consequences, but also its advantages. Furthermore, I realized that I will put a lot of effort into gaining knowledge in all Adobe programs, which we used in Time and Integrative Studio a lot. I already learned a lot this year and realized that it’s relatively easy for me to understand them and use them. As soon as I have a good over all knowledge of them, I will be able to give my creativity form and express myself in different ways.
