We asked 18 students to draw campus from memory, and this is what happened.
As the years here at USC pile on, the campus map that lives within our mind’s eye may either be very much like the official blueprint given to us freshman year — or not. Our experiences begin shaping our perspective of campus from Day One so that the vision of USC that an English major has can’t be more different than a mechanical engineer’s. Daily Trojan Blogs handed 14 students a blank sheet of paper, a pen and challenged them to draw a map of campus from memory in under two minutes. The quickly-drafted maps are very telling of what students remember best and consider most important. Presented below, these masterpieces are organized according to their artists’ schools and accompanied by a quote of their favorite thing about USC and its campus.
1. Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism
Iman Rana, senior, international relations: “My favorite place on campus? Probably Doheny Library. I also like New Annenberg, it’s really nice. Actually, I really like VPD, too. Top three.”
Janice Wong, senior, environmental science and health: “I love the weather!”
Lauren Taylor, senior, human biology: “My favorite thing is the people.”
Jane Kim, senior, biological sciences and social sciences (emphasis in psychology): “I really like that it’s small enough to get around quickly, but it’s big enough so we always have somewhere new to go.”
3. Marshall School of Business
Andrew Nazarian, sophomore, business administration: “The atmosphere, the school spirit. It’s definitely very lively. Everyone’s kind of like in the same place, you know.”
Stefen Chraghchian, sophomore, business administration and real estate development: “My favorite part of campus, I’d say, is Campus Center and Moreton Fig just because it’s a lot of people and you always run into your friends.”
4. Viterbi School of Engineering
Paranat Thirawattanawong, junior, biomedical engineering: “I love the finger fountain because it’s very symbolic.”
Shi Hao Hong, junior, biomedical engineering: “I like the architecture, because it’s very cool.”
Ryan Louie, junior, electrical engineering: “I like Campus Center, because they have food.”
9. School of Cinematic Arts
Rachelle Hoppel, junior, film and television production: “My favorite part about USC is the community of film students.”
Genny Parkes, junior, film and television production: “My favorite place on campus is the stacks in Doheny because they’re really quiet, and it’s a nice place to get a break from all the stressful stuff going on.”
10. School of Architecture
Mariuska Stepenka, junior, architecture: “I should have started from Expo and went all the way up to the finger fountain.”
One word to describe campus: “A-lot-of-brick.”
Michael Jennings, junior, architecture: “Favorite part: The sky-scraper.” (He meant VKC.)
One word to describe campus: “Quaint, or idealized.”
Our editors in the newsroom also had some fun with this activity:
Joseph Chen, Photo Editor:
Jack Walker, News Editor:
Hawken Miller, Deputy News Editor:
Danni Wang, Associate Managing Editor: