Though NYSID had to adopt a fully online instruction model in summer 2020, the College’s MFA1 service learning studio was more popular and productive than ever.

Terry Kleinberg, NYSID Instructor and the force behind the studio, added a second section and mentored a team of students who redesigned SUNY College of Optometry’s 15,000 SF University Eye Center. The students were Jacqueline Feng, Kimberly Friedman, Alina Hackett, Allyson Hughes, Rebecca Lipschitz, Jingxian Liu, Mallory Max, Sonalika Nair, and Chazzten Pettiford. Their end users were people with low vision and/or head traumas that impacted sight, visual therapy patients, attending physicians, and residents. “Knowing that this project could go live was a big thing for me. It made me more determined to double-check whatever ideas I put forth,” said Sonalika Nair.

Faculty member David Burdett led the Safe Horizon section of the course, which focused on a residence and emergency shelter for victims of violence. The design team included students Praveena Aleti, Jung-Chen Chih, Benny Seda-Galarza, Michal Greenbaum, Yevgeniya Khatskevich, Anna Love, Lauren Moonan, April Podlaski, Nelson Sanchez, Diana Seserman, Yu-Wen Wang, and Sheng-Wei Yang. “It was satisfying to know that our designs for the domestic violence shelter could help the residents in their healing journey. It was designing with a purpose, not just about aesthetics,” said Benny Seda-Galarza.

For a deeper dive into both projects, check out the SUNY College of Optometry and Safe Horizon articles published on the NYSID blog.

SUNY College of Optometry

Safe Horizon