EMILY: All right.
This is awesome.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Wood has such beauty.
And it really speaks to me.
Should I read the instructions?
You learn a lot about yourself if you do it yourself,
or at least try.
EMILY: A lot of the art that I make
is trying to get the viewer to experience the natural world
and get back into that space.
Oh, man, here we go.
It's not the best birdhouse I've made.
But whoo! [LAUGHS]
[BIRDS SINGING]
EMILY: So I wake up, and it's just nice to be in silence
and be in nature first thing in the morning.
[SAW WHIRRING]
Then it's off jumpstarted into projects.
I'm just a tornado of creating things.
It's just nonstop.
ELYSIA: The work ethic I saw-- you were always here,
always making something.
[LAUGHTER]
EMILY: I've always enjoyed art and design.
But I never really saw it as a potential career possibility.
I grew up in a small town with two older brothers,
working for my family's poultry farm and hatchery.
In school, I don't think I particularly
excelled in any specific subject.
So at 18, I just fell into a major and just completed it.
I recognized that I was not the person that I wanted to be.
So my journey started when I met Alex.
ALEX: What are we doing for dinner?
EMILY: I have no idea.
EMILY: Coming out was a very difficult, stressful time.
But there's been a lot of growth since then.
I chose the Integrated Design program.
It combined three of the things that I was most interested
in--
art, design, and construction classes.
ELYSIA: The whole point was to build an interdisciplinary program.
And Integrated Design pulls the silos together.
TABITHA: Everyone who leaves can have an understanding
that there is a design phase.
I am designing for someone.
How can I take the best materials
applicable for that job and execute
that in a fashion that then lets me turn out a viable product?
MATT: Get all four on there.
Grind off the tops.
MATT: For the Design Thinking project,
students design a public sculpture.
It's been fun to watch how you really just attack the projects.
RAY: We had wood, metal, ceramics.
We're all teaching the same curriculum.
But each one of us has a different vehicle to apply it.
We couldn't have done this without the National Science
Foundation grant.
EMILY: So what is ATE?
ELYSIA: ATE stands for Advanced Technological Education,
which is a program out of National Science Foundation.
And Integrated Design was built under this ATE grant.
RAY: What color would you put on a walnut box like that?
EMILY: Something contrasting.
So maybe a maple or cherry.
EMILY: I wasn't really expecting going back to school
to be this fruitful.
MAN: Hey.
EMILY: How's it going?
MAN: Good.
How are you doing?
EMILY: What do we got going on today?
EMILY: Elysia asked me if I was interested in a job.
So I'm the lead fabricator for Gnargo Bikes.
I help with cutting, bending, welding the frames.
These are reclaimed bike frames with a cargo space in the front.
They're rethinking the way people commute.
EMILY: It's been life changing being able to get up and create and do
what you love.
To me, that's success.
ALEX: You have become far more confident.
You ask what I think a lot less.
[LAUGHTER]
Not in a bad way.
EMILY: Entering this program, it pushed me out
of my comfort zone.
I feel like I know what I'm doing for the first time.
And I'm actually doing something I really enjoy.
[MUSIC PLAYING]