My Unlikely Love of Web Design

By Maddy Hackett, Sophmore BA Student

Marist has provided such a good structure to be able to explore all of your interests. I had always thought that focusing on a specific major would give me the ability to enhance my skills in one specific area- however, I find also that being able to take classes from philosophy to ballet, to political science has helped me incorporate and make connections to enrich my versatility as a student as well as a person. This style of education has helped me think on a much broader scale so that I can hone those skills from my non-major related classes into my major which is digital media with a concentration in graphic design. The ability to take classes that incorporate my many interests provides a constant source of inspiration for design.

My favorite class so far has been web design. This is an introduction class that gives you the foundation of building a website from scratch. Web design is a core class for my major, yet I was hoping to get this class out of the way and focus on graphics and layout because I was never super interested in coding. So Initially this was incredibly daunting to me. I thought web design involves a language that is foreign to me and codes that made me go cross-eyed. Walking in I had already convinced myself that there was no way I could learn it. Within the first few sentences the passion of my professor radiated off of him, which made it so much easier to absorb. This aspect of my professors to be the most beneficial to my learning here in Florence; The passion that they have for their subject matter inspires you and encourages you so much that you can’t help but be captivated by their words and lessons. After the first class I had found myself researching coding as soon as I got home. In the second class I found myself moving on to the next step in my head before he had even explained it, this was an incredible feeling to be thinking so clearly and actively because in high school I was used to feeling one step behind the teacher. The encouragement and patience that my professor has used in his style of teaching have only empowered me and helped me persevere past any difficulty I’ve experienced. It’s often something so simple like a spelling error that can throw off a whole structure of a code but it has taught me to be more precise and tenacious with my work. Now I find my thoughts wandering off with ideas for the websites that I hope to create.