Meet our MFA Design candidates for 2012. We asked them to answer the following:

1. What was noteworthy about your first year at MFAD?
2. What is your favorite NYC experience?
3. What was your favorite assignment was from first year?

Here are Michael Croxton’s responses:

1. The MFAD program really opened me up to the idea that I could have an impact on the world. I learned that design isn’t just about working for someone to make things pretty so that they can sell them. It’s also about choosing to make things that have a real impact on the world or on an individual.

2. My favorite experience has been living in New York. It has so much energy and life. I love being able to walk the same route everyday and being able to see something new every time.

3. Alan Chochinov asked us to find a problem and attempt to fix it. I chose to tackle the voting system in Utah. I decided to try to repair it at the source: the neighborhood. Block Party is a kit for throwing a non-partisan, pre-caucus neighborhood block party. It will be distributed by both Democratic and Republican organizations. The kit contains a guide for hosting a pre-caucus block party, yard signs for advertising, icebreaker buttons and “neighborhood views” cards to be given to the delegates that are elected at the caucus meeting, in the hope that they’ll serve the needs of their constituents instead of special interests. The overall goal is to bring politics back to the community and to help people participate in their own neighborhoods.