William Whiting

Degree: BFA, Product Design 

Expected Graduation Date: Spring 2021

I’m From: Evanston, Illinois

Why I Came to the UO and How I Chose My Major
I am originally from the midwest and just about every summer my family and I would take a road trip  to the Oregon coast to visit our extended family. Those trips and the Oregon coast hold some of my fondest memories and thus, the University of Oregon was always a school I considered attending. I decided to tour the UO my junior year and absolutely fell in love with it. The campus is beautiful and has so much soul. I also loved the fact that it was a fairly large school with a small school community feeling to it. I applied to the UO as well as the Product Design program and was accepted to both. My parents had decided to move to the Oregon coast and told me after I had been accepted. It was such a nice surprise because I am able to be very close with them and everything has worked out so well.

Ever since I was a kid I have loved to draw as well as build and create things with my hands. Making something and getting to choose what it looks like, how it functions and creating little stories and worlds for it to exist in has fascinated me my entire life. For a long time I wanted to work in illustration or architecture, feeling that they matched my skills and interests very well. However, because I was only working with preliminary knowledge of possible careers I did not know that product design really existed and was a field that you could major in and work in. After doing a lot of research and finding some work done by professionals working in the field, that absolutely blew me away, I knew that I wanted to become a product designer.

Unique Qualities I Bring to My Studies
I was a pretty shy kid for most of my childhood and adolescence and instead of putting myself out there to conquer what I was afraid of, I would dive into, and fully immerse myself in specific genres of design and culture. Some of my favorites were GT and F1 racing, Gundam model kits and science fiction, especially the work of Syd Mead. I was in awe of anything that allowed me to wonder and was complexly beautiful. Now, anytime I design something, whether it be through sketching or 3D modeling, I am evaluating its quality and function, as well as pulling from aesthetic influences that I have looked at and up to my entire life.

My Influential Professors
Trygve Faste has been such an influential professor and person in my design career. He is incredibly talented at what he does and is able to simply and effectively communicate his thoughts about my designs and advise me in how to proceed. He has taught me many things and shown me many skills that I am grateful for. He’s really taught me the importance of being patient with a design and allowing it to evolve and improve without rushing to the finish line. Often, especially in his drawing classes, I would receive the prompt for an assignment and within the next day or two feel like I knew exactly what I wanted to create and how I was going to do so. Trygve would come over to my desk, sketch out some things, talk to me about possible design opportunities that I hadn’t explored and my mind would light up with new possibilities as well as notice many flaws with my seemingly perfect idea. He has always been honest, selfless and real and we share the same excitement and passion for design and all of the intricacies and wonder it holds. 

My Extracurricular Activities
My father has been volunteering for the Emergency Volunteer Corps of Nehalem Bay (EVCNB) for about three years now. We talk a lot about the work and recently I have helped on a couple of projects, one of which was creating informative and inviting icons for their website and flyers. The EVNBC is a non-profit organization that focuses on community preparedness and readiness for emergency situations. Where I live on the coast is very susceptible to disasters such as flooding, fires, earthquakes and tsunamis. We are also a very small area without amenities such as a large hospital, supermarkets or retail stores and the only available travel in or out of town is Highway 101, most of which runs along the side of or through mountains. With all of this taken into consideration, it is very important for our community to be prepared and well educated about what to do in the case of an emergency and that is what EVCNB helps facilitate. The work the EVCNB does is important to me because I really care for this community and even though I have only lived here for four years I feel very connected with it. If anything bad were to happen I would want myself as well as my community members to be able to have everything that we need in order to overcome the challenge.

My Greatest Learning Experience at UO
When you need help, ask for it. I think early on in my college career I wanted to seem like I had everything figured out. Even if I didn’t understand something in a 3D modeling program or in the wood shop, I wouldn’t ask for help and would figure it out one my own because I was afraid of looking like I didn’t know what I was doing. Thankfully, time and time again I have learned about the importance and value of swallowing my pride and asking for help. So many of my projects have benefitted tremendously and I have found such great people and relationships in doing so.

After Graduation
My greatest hopes are to have a family that is full of love, financial security to support the ones that I love and a job in which I can communicate with people a lot and create positive change with my design work. Throughout my College of Design education I have learned many valuable skills that will help me in my design career; I have become very confident in sketching, I have learned how to 3D model and render a final product as well as manufacturing methods to create physical models and prototypes and how to present my research, process and final design in a clear and visually pleasing way. I have also learned how to put other people before myself. I have practiced patience, discipline and positivity. I have learned how to recognize a mistake that I have made, learn from and correct it, and move forward in a more prepared and positive way. I have learned these lessons and many others over the course of my College of Design education and although they will benefit me greatly in my career I will also benefit from them in all aspects of my life.

Your Gift
My family does not have a lot of money. My mother works as a high school guidance counselor, my father is unemployed and my college education is being funded through my parents and my savings, my grandmothers generosity and as much financial aid as I am allotted. This scholarship is a gift to me. It will allow me to attend the BFA program next year with less stress, anxiety and fear and more of everything that it is supposed to be. I believe that next year will act as a crucial stepping stone for me and my career and this scholarship makes that stepping stone, and transition into what I what to become, so much more accessible.

Thank you, although you have never met me, thank you for believing in me and helping me invest in my future. I truly believe that the kindness that we show others does not only help the ones we show it to, but will reverberate through everyone it touches. You did not award my Grandmother with a scholarship today, but today she cried out with joy and told me how proud she was to call me hers when I told her what I had received. Thank you for making the choice to positively impact my life and the world with your gift I am forever grateful for your generosity.