FACS students partner with senior retirement facility  

The interior design program within the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences (FACS) creates learning opportunities for students with real-life course assignments. This year, interior design students partnered with a retirement community to give students the opportunity to redesign a hallway on the property. 

Covenant Woods is a retirement facility located in Mechanicsville, Virginia. It was originally founded in 1883 as the Richmond Home for Ladies and soon grew to serve the elderly in all areas of life including independent, assisted and memory care. More than 350 residents live on its campus.  

The project presented before the interior design students consisted of redesigning the hall that bridges the facility’s buildings together. Remodel plans include making changes to the paint color, featured artwork,  hardware and new flooring. The students also integrated the requirements of the International Building Code and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Senior seminar students were divided into groups of two, each coming up with a new design for the space.  

This class assignment became a competition between teams. Each team hoped their design would be selected by Covenant Woods. The project included multiple presentation rounds. The first presentation of each team’s design was to other students and professors, and the second was to a Covenant Woods representative. Finally, the two best designs were presented to Covenant Woods leadership.  

Assistant Professor of Interior Design Kevin Layell was in charge of the class project. He said students did not just build their experience in interior design, but the project also prepared students to curate and communicate their ideas through professional presentations to both the class and the Covenant Woods leadership.  

“All the teams presented in class and to each other,” Layell said. “(The professors) took the best three out of each class … and those teams presented to Laurie.” 

Laurie Ursiny, the director of philanthropy at Covenant Woods, was the main point of contact for the FACS project. Ursiny came to Liberty University for the second round of presentations. 

“I had the privilege of visiting campus to see the presentations in person, and I was deeply impressed,” Ursiny said. “The students approached the project with professionalism, creativity and thoughtful attention to detail.” 

Out of the six presentations given, the top two were selected to present to Covenant Woods leadership. The senior seminar students selected were Taylor Garran, Kaitlyn Pulliam, Lauren Camp and Tori Ward.  

In the end, the official winners were Garran and Pulliam. However, as leadership was especially impressed by both presentations, they hope to include elements from each team into the final design. Currently, the planned deadline for the hallway updates is projected for July. 

Layell said that many of the interior design professors focus on the heart of serving others in keeping with Mark 12:30-31. 

“As designers, we design to solve problems,” Layell said. “We kind of put ourselves in other people’s shoes. You’re really serving somebody else.” 

This project serves not just to help students succeed academically, but also to train students to have a heart of service for their community.  

To learn more about Covenant Woods and ways to serve, visit their website at covenantwoods.com.  

Gathje is the assistant feature editor for the Liberty Champion.