{"id":841,"date":"2025-06-17T13:27:19","date_gmt":"2025-06-17T17:27:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bsu.edu\/online\/?p=841"},"modified":"2025-06-17T13:27:19","modified_gmt":"2025-06-17T17:27:19","slug":"a-journey-to-design-management","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bsu.edu\/online\/2025\/06\/a-journey-to-design-management\/","title":{"rendered":"A Journey to Design Management"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rachel De Deyn embodied the dedication and drive required to excel in a demanding field while pursuing her <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bsu.edu\/academics\/collegesanddepartments\/online\/academic-programs\/masters\/msintdesign\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">master\u2019s degree in Interior Design<\/a> at Ball State University. Juggling a full-time job at TRELLIS, a MillerKnoll furniture dealer, while taking online classes is no easy feat. Still, De Deyn\u2019s experience offered her valuable insight.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">One of the key factors in De Deyn\u2019s success was the program\u2019s flexibility.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cI worked full-time, then did my course work either at the end of the day or on the weekends. I love the ability to still work and maintain my career while pursuing my degree,\u201d De Deyn said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">De Deyn\u2019s journey to getting her master\u2019s degree wasn\u2019t without challenges. Balancing work, studies, and personal life required significant effort and time management skills.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cComing from home from a day of work and getting right into studying, it&#8217;s not always as easy as it sounds like it should be,\u201d De Deyn. \u201cThat was the biggest hurdle to overcome but having it online and being able to do it for my couch was just really great.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">Having a strong mentor can make a difference, and Professor Kanakri played a crucial role in helping De Deyn navigate through the complexities of graduate studies.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cShe was definitely instrumental and very supportive. She was able to provide me with information and feedback and gave me a broader understanding of my role within the design world,\u201d De Deyn said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">The master\u2019s program proved to be transformative for De Deyn\u2019s approach to design.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">It instilled in her a focus on blending functionality, aesthetics, and sustainability while emphasizing evidence-based design.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cThe program taught me to have research first and then think about how everything you&#8217;re doing impacts somebody and hope that will be positive,\u201d De Deyn said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">To students interested in the program and those currently enrolled, De Deyn said it was really influential for her to be in the workforce for a few years before starting her graduate studies.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cIt gave me a bit of perspective on what I wanted out of my career and what direction I wanted to go,\u201d De Deyn said. \u201cGet your feet wet and figure out if you like the industry.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rachel De Deyn embodied the dedication and drive required to excel in a demanding field while pursuing her master\u2019s degree in Interior Design at Ball State University. Juggling a full-time job at TRELLIS, a MillerKnoll furniture dealer, while taking online classes is no easy feat. Still, De Deyn\u2019s experience offered her valuable insight. One of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":421,"featured_media":846,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,124],"tags":[163,7,158],"class_list":["post-841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-student-and-faculty-stories","category-student-resources","tag-interior-design","tag-masters","tag-online"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>A Journey to Design Management - Ball State Online<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Flexibility, faculty mentorship, and a focus on evidence-based design in the Master&#039;s in Interior Design program shaped Rachel De Deyn&#039;s career and approach to creating functional, aesthetic, and sustainable spaces.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bsu.edu\/online\/2025\/06\/a-journey-to-design-management\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Journey to Design Management - 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