Visiting DRES was a very cool experience. As a former student of Dr. McDonagh’s Disability + Relevant Design course, I have heard a lot about DRES, as well as Coach Adam’s space. It was exciting to be able to visualize the space I had heard so much about. But an even more exciting experience was being able to meet the athletes and students that we had discussed often in that class as well.
I have always been inspired by Arielle’s success, as she was the person who first had success in this pipeline of courses. To see someone, and not necessarily even a designer, create a product and then profit from its creation is just so exciting for me to see. She really found an area that needed improvement, no matter the scale, and took off with it. I would love to talk to her further about how she runs her company now and how it’s affected her day to day life.
Hearing Ron speak was also another enlightening experience. I feel like we were so fortunate to have him come in to speak because he was an excellent story teller that really captivated the room. Ron seems to be a person that allows for nothing to stop him, and if something gets in his way, he finds a way to fix it. I was so impressed by his solutions he created, as well as the fact that he continues to find creative solutions to the challenges that come up in his daily life.
At this point I have a few inspirations for projects that might be good opportunities to tackle. I’m looking forward to meeting with my team to hear their ideas as well.
Hi, I agreed so much with you when you talked about how much of an inspiration it was to be able to meet Arielle and see her success that originated from taking the same course that we are currently taking! Looking past this course a little bit, if you’re interested in getting more involved with start ups and innovation, I recommend you check out 54.io, a festival where Illinois Founders helps students get into groups and start planning for start-ups!