WKU News

An internship program in WKU’s Planning Design & Construction department is giving students real world experience.

And providing crucial support in construction and renovation projects across campus as WKU’s Amy Bingham shows us in this week’s View from the Hill.

There are 100 renovation projects or new construction projects under way at WKU.  It keeps Planning Design & Construction (or PDC) busy and allows student interns the opportunity to contribute every step of the way.

“Once I realized it was something I could do forever, then I was like, yep that’s what I’m gonna do.”

Senior Alyssa Kiser from Dayton, Ohio, says she got the bug for interior design in high school when her family built a new house.

“I got to spend time seeing people giving me renderings and ideas of what my room could look like. That was really awesome and I kind of fell in love with it from there.”

Now, Alyssa is the one helping show renderings to clients as the interior design student intern at Planning, Design & Construction.

“They really contribute, like they are in project meetings and are coming up with designs.”

Alyssa works closely with Renovation Project manager Tiffany Dempsey who says the student interns are a valuable resource.

“By the time they are in their senior year in that program they are so good at photoshop, Autocad and Revit, these are programs we use all the time on our projects.”

Over the summer, Alyssa focused much of her time on some renovations and branding opportunities at Gary Ransdell Hall.

“They’ve really liked some of the stuff I’ve worked on.  We’re working on a flooring that has a random type pattern and it’s these long planks that are going into this collaboration area.”

Soaking up all the experience she can get until graduation, before beginning a career as a commercial interior designer.

“Being in a higher education setting does give me a lot of offices and classrooms and things like that that will prepare me for what I’d like to do in the future.”

There are a total of three student interns in the PDC department.

Dempsey says former interns have gotten jobs in Colorado, Atlanta and even Walt Disney World.