Sustainability: Kirkland Student at Bellevue College Wins Essay Contest

Summer Sterling of Kirkland, a student at Bellevue College, has won an essay contest from the International Interior Design Association’s Northern Pacific Chapter by writing about her own approach to sustainability and how that can translate in larger ways through her career.

Her essay is titled “Doing the Right Thing…and Passing It On,” and is about her habit of picking up litter left behind by others, and passing that practice on to her family. Read it by clicking here.

Sterling holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and has worked in state politics and K-12 education in California, but is launching a second career by pursuing a four-year degree in Interior Design, She expects to graduate from Bellevue College this June. Sterling was a committee chair for the recent re-accreditation of the program, and currently serves as president of the IIDA Puget Sound Campus Center.

Bellevue College’s Interior Design program is one of only three in Washington state to earn accreditation. Serving approximately 500 students each year, the program awards certificates, associate degrees and, since 2010, has offered a bachelor’s degree program that graduated its second class last year.