August 30, 2018
National Kitchen and Bath Association Taps San Diego Mesa College as College of the
Year
By Office of Communications
HACKETTSTOWN, NJ — The National Kitchen & Bath Association has named San Diego Mesa College the winner
of its College of the Year honor for its outstanding technical merit in student kitchen
and bath design.
The College of the Year is chosen from among the entries in the Association’s annual
Student Design Competition. Each school that enters picks its top two entries to compete
for the College of the Year. This year, there were nearly 300 entries for the assignment,
which was designing a kitchen or bath for a Habitat for Humanity home in Warren County,
NJ, near the NKBA’s national headquarters. The judging is based on technical expertise
and precision of drawing, along with compliance to the NKBA’s industry-leading standards.
“We are especially proud to have received this honor because we are a two-year program
and compete with many of the four-year programs,” said Helene Lindquist, adjunct professor
in the interior design program at San Diego Mesa College.
Lindquist pointed out that, as a two-year school, students are not required to take
the same number of general education credits as required for a four-year degree. “But
our students get the same amount of design education: They are required to take 60
units in design,” said Lindquist. “We teach them how to refine their design processes
and follow the NKBA standards and requirements. Most of our design classes include
parts of the NKBA standards, but we have one class dedicated to teaching them for
kitchen and bath drafting. That makes a difference. Kitchen and bath drafting is done
on a different scale from general drafting.”
In addition, the NKBA recognized the following colleges as its Excellence In Education
honorees: Century College, Saint Paul, MN; Front Range Community College – Larimer
Campus, Fort Collins, CO; Joliet Junior College, Joliet, IL; Lakeland College, Plymouth,
WI, and Mt. San Antonio College, Walnut, CA.
The NKBA’s 2018-2019 Student Design Competition is now open. To qualify, entrants
must be NKBA student members enrolled in an educational institution on the date of
submission. All submissions are due by May 6, 2019.
Learn more about Mesa’s College’s Interior Design and other Career Education Programs on the Career Education webpage (www.sdmesa.edu/starthere).
Tags: Interior Design, Mesa College Interior Design Program, national kitchen and bath association
