{"id":42624,"date":"2016-04-06T08:32:06","date_gmt":"2016-04-06T15:32:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stage.headlessnauedu-b6hgdzckfdgxgzhe.westus-01.azurewebsites.net\/?p=42624"},"modified":"2016-04-07T16:35:56","modified_gmt":"2016-04-07T23:35:56","slug":"naus-first-trip-cuba-life-changing-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/naus-first-trip-cuba-life-changing-design\/","title":{"rendered":"NAU’s first trip to Cuba life-changing by design"},"content":{"rendered":"

While architecture drew nine interior design students to a study abroad trip to Cuba, the heart of the experience turned out to be people, not buildings.<\/p>\n

Melissa Santana<\/strong>, assistant professor of interior design at NAU, led a trip to Havana, Cuba, over spring break where students learned about historic preservation and the kindness of the Cuban people.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a frequent traveler to Cuba, I knew that offering the chance to study adaptive reuse and historic preservation would be just a small part of the value gained from the trip,\u201d Santana said. \u201cStudents experienced the culture firsthand by living with host families who showed kindness far beyond expectation. It touched the hearts of everyone on the trip to experience such generosity despite political tensions between our countries.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group, composed\u00a0of sophomores, juniors and seniors, immersed themselves in the Cuban culture and 500 years of architectural history visiting plazas, Colon Cemetery and the Museum of Revolution, to name a few.<\/p>\n

Santana said students made the correlation that their profession has a lot to do with politics\u2014a key take-away for the burgeoning interior designers. They were able to see first-hand how Cuban designers and architects, like Miguel Coyula, consider cultural value and navigate political waters when converting historic buildings into new spaces like schools, museums and restaurants.<\/p>\n

\"cuba4\"<\/a>Coyula, a well-known Cuban architect and professor at the University of Havana, met with NAU students and discussed how cultural heritage can be derived from\u00a0architecture.<\/p>\n

While study abroad students Lindsey Griffin<\/strong> and April Beard<\/strong> learned a lot from the study of Cuban design, they said it was the interaction with the people of Havana that will forever live in their hearts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were the humblest people I\u2019ve ever met,\u201d said Beard, a third-year interior design major. \u201cThe state of political affairs between our countries didn\u2019t matter to the Cuban people we met; they were so caring and always willing to help us, no matter what.\u201d<\/p>\n

Griffin, a senior in the Interior Design program, added that she was surprised to feel more safe\u00a0walking the streets of Havana than she does in some cities in America.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was an experience of a lifetime\u2014so much more than architecture,\u201d Griffin said. \u201cI\u2019m forever grateful to have been given this opportunity and proud to be part of the first group from NAU to study abroad in Cuba.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While architecture drew nine interior design students to a study abroad trip to Cuba, the heart of the experience turned out to be people, not buildings. Melissa Santana, assistant professor of interior design at NAU, led a trip to Havana, Cuba, over spring break where students learned about historic preservation and the kindness of the…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":42636,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1316,1312,1313,1317,1314,1315,24,149],"class_list":["post-42624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-community","tag-architecture","tag-cuba","tag-havana","tag-historic-preservation","tag-interior-design","tag-melissa-santana","tag-northern-arizona-university","tag-study-abroad"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42624\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}