Did you know?

• •  A career symposium for Interior Design college students has been held nearly every year in the San Francisco, California area since 1966, when the Northern California Chapter of the National Home Furnishings League (NHFL), now IFDA, sponsored the first such event.

 

• •  Since 1989, it has been a successful all volunteer, collaborative effort of the local professional chapters of American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) (through 2010), International Furnishings and Design Association (IFDA), and National Kitchen and Bath Association (NKBA) in Northern and Central California and Nevada, joined in 2011 by the Window Coverings Association of America (WCAA), and California Council for Interior Design Certification (CCIDC).

   

  • Currently one of the largest Interior Design student career programs in the United States and serves as a model for others around the country.

   

  • Chair responsibilities rotate between each of the sponsoring organization chapters. All sponsoring chapters provide planning committee members each year to chair sub-committees, as well as volunteers before and during the event.

   

  • Planning and work by this volunteer committee begins in the late spring for the following year’s event.

   

  • Nationally recognized keynote and workshop speakers on various aspects of interior design and tours of the design center showrooms fill the program.

   

  • Sponsorship and support comes from the San Francisco Design Center and the design industry.

   

  • As many as 500 interior design students have attended each year. Attendees come primarily from California and Nevada Interior Design Programs.

   

  • Also part of the event, student design competitions sponsored by the professional organization chapters, usually with over $5,000 in prize money awarded each year. The entries are displayed in the Galleria at
  the San Francisco Design Center.

   

  • The Student Career Forum continues to be an exciting, energetic, and cooperative volunteer collaboration among Interior Design professionals and industry. The excitement and appreciation of the students
  make it rewarding and very much worth the hard work and effort.

   

   

  Compiled by Nancy Wolford, Ph.D., IFDA

  © NO.CA.
  IFDA/2012