I can’t even take how great these students are!  I was in class tonight and next to my podium where I lecture from is a series of tables.  At these tables are where the “popcorn kids” sit and have sat all year long.  Let me backtrack a bit and tell you how they came to be- “the popcorn kids.”

My current Kutztown University 3D Design class is made up of nearly all students I had during the fall semester back at KU.  It’s actually pretty fun because there is no awkward “getting to know you” phase.  They all pretty much get what I’m about and what my teaching style is so it makes walking into this semester really really fun.  The other thing about it is that these students are the crem de la crem of Fall so I know I don’t have dead weight.

Way back when, I took all my classes to New York City.  This is a trip that happened close to registration time and the few that sat near me in the front of the bus were so apprehensive and nervous about taking 3D.  I was uncertain if I was going to be asked back but I had hoped I would and told them not to worry.  Take my class and you will be fine (I can’t help to be self promotional- I am temporary faculty.  I like my job and I want to keep it).  So that brings me to the lovely group of students I have now.

I assigned a pretty dry assignment to start off the semester.  I figure you have to start somewhere.  It was a planar study of an existing object.  Then when the next project came around, I had them break off into groups and look at the objects they already studied.  From there they needed to create an inflatable sculpture that abstracts the original object while maintaining an understanding of how it functioned.  I have to say- the class as a whole seem to struggle with abstraction formally but conceptually they are so strong that I let a lot slide. 

This brings me to how the popcorn kids became who they are.  Starting with a camera…. a camera holds film…. which is also used for movies…. and you eat popcorn at the theater.  Yes, a bit of a stretch but their enthusiasm was hard to resist so I let it fly…….. then I saw the plan.  Way too ambitious, way too large, doing something I have never seen succeed before.  I was so worried but knew with commitment (and firm engineering) that the task at had could be accomplished.  As far as my role as their professor, I began to feel guilty for allowing them to take on such a task.  It would require far more hours than what my course should require.  I felt like I should stop them and that they should scale back but they assured me they could do it.

The group certainly had it’s challenges.  But the most amazing thing I watched in them was their commitment to doing the impossible and the acheive what I have not seem out of students before.  As weeks went by, I kept hearing from my colleagues, studio monitors, previous students, even the dean about how dedicated they were to their work.  I heard about every waking hour they spent putting their enormous piece together and yes, well I also did get the frantic emails at times when there were problems.  But I never minded- these kids were about to achieve a large amount of success and I would have to say- the whole new wing of Sharadin was behind them.

The day came for them to inflate for crit.  I stressed before I left for the weekend that they should be at a point to inflate by Sunday so that if they had problems before Tuesday’s crit that they could fix them.  I walked in Monday and there they were in the hall- still heat forming and chief engineer, Kelly, on Skype SICK with food poisoning.  OMG.  Two of the students, exhausted, continued to plug along.

Tuesday, I arrive at school.  I see Kristy alone.  No inflation yet. 

Tuesday night, office hours- I listen to the group finalize their preparations.  Still not inflation.

Tuesday, crit time- they want to go first.  Inflation begins………….
It bobbles around.  The team tugs at it a bit- Mike and Kelly direct their helpers and then it starts up……. 
THEY DID IT!!!!!  Call me a sap but I was like a proud mama watching her child’s first steps.  I couldn’t have been more proud of them. I ran through the piece a few times…. as many of their classmates did, in admiration and awe of their acheivement.

Tonight, I got to class.  Mike tells me he made a video of the entire process.  I couldn’t be more touched by this.  I ran home and ate olives for dinner just so I could write you and tell you this.  Click this link and check it out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sABfs8rfwpY

ps…. I’m not playing favorites here.  This class actually as a whole made some of the best inflatables I ever got for projects.  I just have picked them out because of the dedication of 150+hours EACH that they spent to do this!!