Prof Spot: Professor Craig Welsh By Jenna DeNoyelles Editor in chief JHDSO3S@PSU.EDU Craig Welsh, an Assistant Professor of Communications in the Humanities department at Penn State Harrisburg, teaches graphic design and advertising and is also the advisor to the Society of Design. He’s been teaching at PSH for five years. Professor Welsh, like many students, balances school with work. In addition to teaching, Welsh also runs his own design company, Go Welsh. Just to name a few of many achievements, Go Welsh has had work exhibited in Times Square, AIGA’s National Design Center, The One Club in NYC, The Eisner American Museum of Advertising & Design in Milwaukee and inclusion in the permanent archives of the Denver Art Museum. Starting Oct 24 the design studio will have an exhibit in Beijing and also in Toronto on Nov. 5. There are times when Welsh teaches his classes functioning on only three hours of sleep, but he’s still pumped up and motivated in class. He’s still excited to be there and doesn’t give his students anything less than great when it comes to teaching. In fact, he’s usually asking his students why they’re so quiet and where their energy is. What keeps Welsh so motivated? “Students keep me pumped. Possibilities keep me pumped. People thinking things are impossible keeps me pumped. Curiosity more than anything. How much can I make a positive impact in other people’s lives? If you set out to do something I think you go for it. Not go for good. Go for great. I like the challenge of seeing what’s possible,” he said. Prior to teaching at PSH, Welsh already made a International student succeeds By FARISA PARVEEN Vaishnavi Krishnan, 19, is a sophomore at Penn State Harrisburg studying marketing. She is originally from India, but she has lived in the Dubai, United Arab Emirates, for the past 17 years. Being an extremely career-oriented person and a diligent student, she moved to the USA to get the best educational opportunities and the highest degree of exposure. However, moving to Middletown has been one of the biggest transformations of her life. “Dubai is like a mini New York, and moving from there to Middletown was a big change. It did take me some time to settle in, but one trick to survival in Middletown is getting involved in school activities,” she said. Krishnan had always wanted to graduate from a well known business school and Penn State’s Smeal College of Business is one of the best in the U.S. She will be moving up to Smeal next fall, which she is looking forward to strongly. PSH is a smaller campus and interaction with the professors and other students is much easier as compared to University Park. PSH gave her a at Penn State Harrisburg Staff Writer FIPSOO9@PSU.EDU name for himself in the design world. He learned from prominent designers like Don Alvaro Leon, who he had as a freshman at PSU. Leon was one of four designers who designed the Korean War Memorial on the Mall in D.C. Professor Welsh also studied advertising design at Syracuse University and was taught by “the who’s who list of historical and contemporary advertising creatives in places like Miami, Boston, NYC, San Francisco, London, and Amsterdam,” he said. He also got his MFA in graphic design at Marywood University. Welsh met Lu Chekowsky when they were both selected of 24 people to interview for the first 12 spots in Wieden + Kennedy’s in-house advertising school called “12.” Where Chekowsky attended “12” with Wieden+Kennedy, Welsh also could have but decided not to at the last minute. Welsh was nominated for the “Forty Under 40” event featured by Central Penn Business Journal each year. “At 291 had merged my first design studio into a larger agency at which time I became president/creative director of the newly combined agency,” he said. As a busy professor and boss of his own design firm, it’s natural to assume stress comes with the territory. One thing that stresses Welsh is good. Good? “People being okay with ‘good.’ Good is the enemy of great. Being good bothers me. It just makes me wonder why great didn’t happen,” he said. But he said his biggest stressor of all time is students using cell phones and “click, click, clicking” all the time in class on the computer. “Shut ‘em off. Pay attention. And get your act together,” he said. stronger base, and also provided an easier transition to the U.S. Going to the Harrisburg campus was just what she needed before she could ease into this overwhelming transition of adjusting to the life of University Park. “I love it at PSH! Despite it being a small campus there is so much diversity among the students. The professors are friendly and approachable. Because of the small number of students, I do not feel lost on campus like I probably would among the 40.000 students in University Park,” she said. Living in the USA has made her stronger and more independent. She has learned to take care of herself, and not depend on her parents for everything, which in itself is a huge change given the culture she is from and the way she was raised. She has also learned the value of good friendship at a stronger level after coming to PSH. The cultural difference was a big shock to her. “When I came here, I did feel a culture shock but there are so many positive aspects of the American culture. I like to learn from the positives and leave out the negative. I also love observing the differences in culture between the American states. Americans, in the broader sense, are more open minded and receptive towards change, I feel,” she said. In addition to being a conscientious and sincere student and being on the Dean’s list for all the semesters she has Pictured is Craig Welsh at the Society of Design event on Oct 15. been at Penn State Harrisburg, she is definitely one of the most active international students on campus. During her second semester, she succeeded in becoming the President of International Affairs Association. She is also the Senator from the Business School in the Student Government Association. Currently she works at the Student Activities office, therefore she is extremely involved in making changes or coming up with ways to make lives easier for the students at Penn State Harrisburg. Apart from organizing several international dinners, she has also been organizing the “Diwali/Eid” event for two years that has been successful in giving the students a taste of the major festivals of the Hindus and Muslims. Therefore, it shows that even though she has successfully adapted to the culture here, she has not forgotten her own. And she makes it a point to expose her culture to the American society as much as possible. Aside from being a good student, she is proving to excel in different fields making the best use of the university’s resources, and at the same time giving back to the university. Vaishnavi wants to work in business in the USA after she graduates before earning her MBA in the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, which is her dream school.
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