Hands-On Experience: RCA students renovate media center

Rockdale Career Academy students are building their resumes with some real work. Recently, students put their classroom knowledge to work in a real-world project to renovate the RCA media center, with funding help from the Lowe’s Toolbox for Education program. 

Students from Construction teacher Brett Creel’s classes, Graphic Design teacher Shaun Freeman’s classes, and Interior Design teacher Lydia Churillo’s classes all worked on the media center over two years. Interior Design students created an idea board and helped determine the color palette, cloth patterns and furniture styles. Construction students built a scale model, measuring the entire facility and furniture, to figure out what to move and what to build. Students built bookshelves onto the walls and dozens of stands for computer desks and moved the check-out counters to enable a better use of space.

The students even built a special reading corner for Early Learning Center complete with a castle and drawbridge. Graphic Design students created vinyl stencils on the walls with inspiring quotes and a dragon for the reading corner, to match the castle built by Construction career pathway students. 

RCA Media Specialist Sharon Davidson said, “We wanted to come into the 21st century. With RCA being a College and Career Academy, we wanted it to be more like a Learning Commons. It’s been a great success. Students love it, they come in here to study or collaborate on projects.” The $5,000 grant from the Lowe’s Toolbox for Education program funded the majority of the renovations, with additional funding from RCA.  Pictured: Rockdale Career Academy Media Specialist Sharon Davidson, Construction teacher Brett Creel, Interior Design teacher Lydia Churillo, Graphic Design teacher Shaun Freeman and their students in the reading corner of the renovated RCA media center.