BALTIMORE — Morgan State University is home to Maryland’s only four-year interior design program, nurturing the next generation of innovators and change-makers.
WJZ is celebrating Black History Month through the lens of historically black colleges and universities and Morgan State University the state’s pioneer destination for inspiring interior designers.
“It’s always been my passion since I was a little girl,” said Kori Stanley, an interior design student at Morgan.
“I was always building LEGOs or constructing something out of nature in the backyard,” Geoffrey Moore, an interior design student at Morgan, told WJZ.
There are more than 80 students in Morgan’s program and they are working toward change in the industry.
Stanley said, “I found my people. I can relate to them, they can relate to me, and for the first time I can feel included in a space that I’m normally not.”
The change Stanley, a junior in the program, is referring to is an industry dominated by white women. The job search company Zippia estimates less than 2% of interior designers are black.
With an average salary of $52,000 a year, Dr. Abimbola Asojo, dean of Morgan’s School of Architecture and Planning, emphasizes the importance of accessibility and diversity.
“We are going to be producing students that are reflective and that can go back in the communities and solve problems in the community that they come from,” Asojo said.
For Stanley, the work is about imitating life through the intersection of sustainability, art, and science.
“Our culture, our music, our history, everything that comes with that is something important to bring out. It feels real. It feels like we could definitely make it come to life and that’s the beauty of it,” Stanley described.
Stanley and others in the program are curating the blueprint to our future.
“It’s time for us to really make a difference and for there to be more interior designers that look like myself,” said Stanley.
Morgan State University told WJZ that its goal is to prepare its students to become industry leaders. Following graduation, each will work to obtain a national Interior Design Certification.