Madison Woodall | Staff Writer
July 18, 2023
When you walk into Emery Ginger’s Architectural Design classroom, you see a lab of scholars diligently working on their next big project. You’re greeted by a smiling Emery ready to welcome you into her class. In such a collaborative environment, innovation is bound to happen. The next generation of creators is building skills here at Murray GSP to bring into the workforce.
The Architectural Design focus area not only centers on building structure, but building ethics and sustainability. Emery includes a variety of projects and activities that allow scholars with all kinds of learning styles to stay engaged. More tactile learners can participate in activities such as tower building while our tech-savvy students can use field programs to create whatever they can imagine.
Most focus areas have a common goal or final project their class is based around. Before the GSP session, Emery was approached by the city of Benton to create a project which would revamp the current Benton Veterans Memorial Plaza in Marshall County. Throughout their time, these scholars will use programs such as SketchUp Pro and Enscape to design these pocket parks. Their goal is to create several park designs that are more interactive for the community, and honor first responders, which will eventually be presented to the city of Benton.
Architectural Design scholar hard at work!
While this is Emery’s first time teaching at GSP, this is not her first time in the classroom. Emery is a Murray State graduate with a Bachelor’s in Architectural Engineering Technology and a Master’s of Science in Engineering Management. She has been an instructor for the Construction Management and Architecture program at Murray State for the past four years. In addition to her productive career, she is working on the path to becoming a licensed architect. When asked why she decided to teach at GSP for the summer, Emery said, “It was a new teaching opportunity that I wanted to take advantage of while I had time in the summer.” Since Emery had been teaching primarily college students since the start of her career, teaching GSP is a different experience.
In the classroom, several scholars had little experience with architecture. Scholar Isabella Martos said, “A lot of us knew very little about architecture. This has been a learning experience for everyone.” When talking with scholar Liz McLurg, she discussed how she had chosen this focus area on her application to see if this was a field she would be interested in pursuing. While this was her first exposure to the information and programs she said it has been a, “thoroughly enjoying experience.”
It is evident that Emery’s passion for architecture flows through her teaching. She is quick to help anyone with a question and does not hesitate to give a more thorough explanation to those working with new equipment. In addition, scholars are eager to get to work on designing whatever their minds can think of. Toward the end of class, Emery does a “vibe check” in which she asks for feedback on how the scholars are feeling about the class. All of the scholars seem comfortable giving comments that can help their learning experience.
When leaving the class, scholars had smiles on their faces, talking with their friends about all the fun things they had done in their focus area that day. This is the kind of environment that we strive for here at the Governor’s Scholars Program.
