By Emily Cook, TLS staff writer
From the industry to the classroom, Chantal Trudel is bringing new ideas and new flare to Carleton’s School of Industrial Design.
Trudel joined the faculty at Carleton in July after teaching as a contract instructor at Ryerson University’s School of Interior Design and working in health care architecture as a health care planner. She says the academic world takes some getting used to.
“It’s just a very different experience,” she says. “It’s a different system, so coming from industry it’s just an adjustment period.”
But Trudel is finding ways to link her industry experience to the classroom. In her job, she says she actively worked with people to develop and improve designs. In lectures, Trudel says she uses this idea to teach students to apply research methods, and learn their limitations.
“Lectures have been somewhat modeled after my own personal experience of working with end-users to work through issues,” she says.
Trudel says this teaching model challenges her too, helping her think critically about class content and how lectures are structured.
“[The students] bring a fresh perspective and it opens me up as well,” she says.
After taking her classes, Trudel says she hopes her students will become critical thinkers. She says industries are complex and students need to be prepared.
“Going into those fields really requires critical thinking and being able, not just to apply design, but to be very critical about the work you’re doing in that field,” says Trudel.
One such industry is health care, and Trudel says she’d like to be a “mentor and a conduit” for students who also want to enter that field and take on its challenges.
Trudel’s husband, Aneurin Bosley, joined Carleton’s School of Journalism and Communication last year. She says working together has been fantastic.
“We both came from industry, so we didn’t have these discussions before,” she says. “It’s interesting and very helpful.”
Trudel says she’s enjoying trying out new teaching methods, like using the Discovery Centre for lecture activities. She says school support for these initiatives is very helpful.
“I don’t pretend that it’s easy work,” says Trudel. “It’s a lot of work but it’s good work, and it’s very rewarding, so it’s been a really good experience thus far.”