News from The Mahurin Honors College

As the final semester draws to a close at Western Kentucky University (WKU), one student's journey through academia culminates in a momentous milestone: graduation. Amidst the bustling campus life and the familiar sights of Bowling Green, Alex Lahman (Class of 2024) reflects on her transformative years at WKU. From navigating the intricacies of transfer student admission, to coursework, to forging lifelong friendships, her experience encapsulates the essence of the Hilltopper spirit.

A native of Nolensville, Tennessee, Alex began her collegiate journey at Columbia State Community College under the “Tennessee Promise” initiative, which allows residents of Tennessee to enroll and attend a community college free of charge. For Alex, this was an opportunity to “save time and money” and she completed her general education requirements under the program. However, when she began the transfer process, initially to UT Knoxville, she found the process “difficult” and unclear.

After a conversation with her mother about her frustrations with the transfer process and lack of guidance, the following day she received a postcard from WKU Transfer “that literally said ‘transfer friendly’ and I decided to check into it, and they had an architectural science program and I talked to an advisor here and I ended up liking it.” Alex noted that WKU’s “customer service was superb and scholarships available to me were the next best step for me and it’s [WKU] close to home.”

Although she initially wanted to study microbiology, a design class in high school resulted in her “ah-ha moment” and a change to her major and career goals, sharing that the course exposed her “to architecture, landscape architecture, interior design, graphic design, and I fell in love.” Yet, even in childhood, she had a fondness for design, explaining that she “grew up drawing floor plans, and mak[ing] these houses out of paper, and when I’d play with dolls with my sister, I was finding interesting spaces for them in the house” while her sister focused on the dolls’ social relationships.

If architectural science as a field is new to you, Alex explained that the field “is how buildings are constructed, how they’re designed, how to work with other people, how to use different modeling software used in professional architectural firms – the focus is more technical whereas other programs are design oriented.” But, the program does provide opportunities for its students to engage in design as well.

For her senior capstone project, Alex is designing the community and aquatic center at Jim Roberts Park in Franklin, Kentucky. “Professor Shahnaz Aly contacted someone from the park service [after seeing a news article announcing the redevelopment plan] and asked if a student could design the community center and they said yes. It’s been a lot of fun; I presented my work two weeks ago to the Mayor and board members of the park – and they really liked it.” Her design plans and drawings will be shared with an architectural firm to realize the final construction.

In addition to her senior capstone project, Alex is also completing an honors thesis and exploring her interest in biophilic design which is the “inclusion of natural patterns, colors, textures, materials, and live plants into interior architecture, and how does this make the person feel and how does it improve the environment they’re in.” At the time of the interview, Alex was about to begin her data analysis to analyze peer perceptions of the impact of her design.

“I took one of the rooms in Industrial Education Building, and I created a model in my software, adding biophilic design and rendered it to be viewed in a VR headset. And then I surveyed 15 students and we sat in the room [without any design applied] and I asked them questions about what they felt, what they liked, didn’t like, and then did the same with VR headsets, and I’m just comparing the responses.”

In reflecting on her WKU experience, Alex shared that “I’ve had a good experience at WKU, I’ve made some very good friendships, that I hope will be lifelong, but it’s been a really good part of my life.” Alex credited the size of her program as helping her find her community, and the ability to personalize her courses to meet her honors requirements, explaining that “the program is also small, so I can come across friends and faculty from the program in the building and everybody knows everybody else. It’s not difficult for me to go to one of my professors and work with them [for augmentation].”

Recently, Alex presented her poster at the national meeting of the American Society for Engineering Education in Baltimore, Maryland, in Summer 2023 which was “a lot of fun – I’ve discovered that I really like going to conferences and any student who has the opportunity to do research and present it, I highly recommend it.” She also traveled to New York City in Spring 2023 semester with peers from her architectural theory class to attend a lecture at Columbia University, describing the opportunity as a “bunch of nerdy architecture kids exploring New York City and it was amazing, we were ‘oh my gosh, there’s this building we’ve studied’ and ‘what’s that over there? Let’s check that building out.”

Post-graduation, Alex plans to pursue a master’s degree to become a licensed architect. “Of the design majors, I think architecture has the most options in the design world. It’s broad… so it’s a very good creative major that opens up a lot of doors.” She’s applying to programs that have a focus on urban planning or health and wellness. Her words of encouragement for the next class of Hilltopper are, “There’s so many places you haven’t been yet where you will belong… meet new people and learn new things about [yourself] as I have about myself.”