From Classroom to Career: My Experience with We Build Idaho

This summer, I had the opportunity to work with WeBuildIdaho.org and the Idaho Associated General Contractors (AGC) through the Future Builders Outreach Project. My project focused on modernizing Idaho AGC’s career fair booth and outreach materials to better connect with Gen Z and Gen Alpha. The goal of the project was to rethink how Idaho’s construction industry presents career opportunities to today’s students and young adults. Before beginning the design work, I researched Gen Z and Gen Alpha, focusing on their characteristics, communication styles, media habits, and career expectations.

I shared my research with We Build Idaho and explored what could make a construction career fair booth more appealing and engaging to these generations—from messaging and signage to technology, social media platforms, hands-on activities, and the types of merchandise and giveaways that might draw students into the booth.
From that research, I moved into the actual design process.

I created a complete collection of updated career fair materials, including:
• A new tablecloth design
• A set of 6-foot retractable banners
• 6-foot tabletop tension banners
• 8-foot tabletop tension banners
• 8-foot floor tension banners
• New 5″ x 7″ career fair handouts/cards

The goal was to create a cohesive, modern visual identity that would stand out in a busy high school career fair while communicating that construction careers are about much more than what students may traditionally picture. Today’s construction industry includes technology, skilled trades, equipment operation, engineering, leadership, and many other career pathways.

One of the most valuable parts of this experience was learning what it is actually like to work as a graphic designer for a client. As a teacher, I have spent years teaching students about the design process. I tell my students that professional designers don’t usually create one idea and immediately produce a finished product. There is a lot of brainstorming, sketching, experimenting, revising, and responding to feedback. This summer, I got to experience that process for myself.

I created ideas, presented concepts, received feedback, made revisions, tried different approaches, and eventually prepared final production files in Adobe Illustrator. Sometimes the feedback was exactly what I hoped to hear. Other times, I had to completely rethink a direction that I personally liked. That was an important lesson. The work isn’t finished just because the designer likes it. The work is finished when it successfully meets the client’s goals.
That is something I can now teach my students with an entirely different level of authenticity.

I have already told my students, “In the real world, graphic designers might create 50–100 sketches before narrowing them down to the strongest ideas to show a client. So when I ask you to create six sketches, that’s nothing!” 😂
The difference is that this summer, I wasn’t just telling them. I was doing it. This externship gave me a much better understanding of the professional expectations placed on graphic designers. I now have real experience I can bring into my classroom when teaching students about brainstorming, client communication, critique, revision, typography, image selection, file preparation, and the difference between designing for yourself and designing for an audience. It also reinforced the importance of teaching students that feedback isn’t failure. A client saying, “I don’t like this direction,” doesn’t mean the designer failed. It means the designer has new information to use to improve the work. That is exactly the mindset I want my students to develop.

This experience also reminded me that learning doesn’t stop when you become a teacher. Sometimes the best way to become a better teacher is to step outside the classroom and become a learner again. I am incredibly grateful to We Build Idaho and the Idaho Associated General Contractors for allowing me to be part of the Future Builders Outreach Project. I gained new knowledge about Idaho’s construction industry, valuable real-world graphic design experience, and—perhaps most importantly—new experiences that I can take back to my students. I went into this externship expecting to design a career fair booth. I came away with a better understanding of what it means to design for the real world!