How the Foundation Studio Program Shapes the First-Year Experience at Otis College

The Foundation year allows undeclared students the time and resources to find their creative and career path.

The Foundation Studio program at Otis College offers an immersive, student-centered experience for first-year students, who begin by taking three studio courses with the same small group of peers. This format immerses students in a vibrant community of learners and allows them to form lifelong friendships from day one. In their second semester, students have the opportunity to tailor their education to specific interests and career aspirations.

Otis lets students start undeclared, and the Foundation Studio program allows them to explore various majors and minors to find the best fit. Below we hear from two students, Avery Plummer (’26 Game and Entertainment Design) and Alejandra Nicely (’28 Illustration; Product Design minor), who share how the Foundation Studio program was a central factor in their growth as artists and designers.

Avery Plummer: A Strong Creative Framework

As a senior coming to the end of my time at Otis, I can’t help but reflect on the past three and a half years and how much I’ve grown as an artist. While I have learned an incredible amount in my Game and Entertainment Design major, I credit a large portion of my artistic and technical development to the Foundation year. 

Entering Otis as a self-taught artist, I had so much passion and curiosity, but lacked the formal technical training. Because I didn’t receive structured art education in high school, I was worried that I would be behind my peers. The Foundation year quickly helped ease those fears. It provided me the tools, structure, and discipline I had been missing, and allowed me to build a strong technical base while also developing confidence in my work and skillset. 

Through intensive courses I learned life drawing, perspective, composition, color theory, and so much more. I not only improved my drawing skills but my mindset as an artist. I learned how to think more critically and be more intentional with my creative choices. My improvement in this first year alone was rapid and motivating, and it helped me feel capable and up to speed with the rest of my classmates.

The Foundation year didn’t just help me ‘catch up,’ it fundamentally shaped how I approach art. It taught me how to analyze my work, accept critique, and continuously improve.” —Avery Plummer (’26 Game and Entertainment Design)

What I didn’t fully realize at the time was how long-lasting the impact of the Foundation year would be. As I’ve progressed through my major, I continue to build upon and rely on the foundational skills I developed in my first year. Life drawing has strengthened my anatomy skills and has allowed me to create more complex and interesting character poses; composition has informed how I set up my environments and characters to create more appealing and readable scenes; and color theory has influenced both my aesthetic and storytelling choices. 

Looking back now, the Foundation year didn’t just help me “catch up,” it fundamentally shaped how I approach art. It taught me how to analyze my work, accept critique, and continuously improve. The skills have remained relevant throughout my studies and continue to influence my practices. It gave me more than technical training, it gave me a strong creative framework that has supported my growth every step of the way.

Alejandra Nicely: Prepared for the Future

Speaking as a sophomore, I think the Foundation Studio program served as a great introduction to the skills and pathways you can achieve while at Otis.

There are Foundation classes specifically designed to introduce students to all the workshops and labs on campus and all the making that they allow, including woodworking, laser cutting, hand and machine sewing, and much more. This encourages students to go outside their comfort zone and pick up trades that can be relaxing hobbies or genuine interests they want to pursue. This made me realize how much I love building and fabricating projects, leading me to add a minor in Product Design to my Illustration major.

The Figure Drawing course was an amazing introduction to design and the human form, and it allowed me to think in 3D space. Throughout the course, I noticed a massive improvement in my anatomy drawing and visual comprehension. My peers and I still say “Everything is boxes,” in reference to how we learned to break things down and put them in perspective. 

The Color and Design course presented a unique challenge in recontextualizing preexisting and subconscious associations with various staples of design. I had to learn to strategically employ or break visual cliches in order to grab my audience’s attention. I constantly find myself revisiting the design basics from this class to make my compositions more effective, and to draw out the most emotion possible from each of my pieces.

[The Foundation year] is a very comforting environment where I found many of my closest friends and mentors who are helping me through my college career right now.” —Alejandra Nicely (’28 Illustration; Product Design minor)

The Foundation Studio program provided a great jumping off point for learning the ins and outs of the Otis community. It served as a time when everyone is actively looking out for each other, making it easy to find your place, especially since you take the year with a cohort of students you’re guaranteed to interact with, even if you end up in different majors. 

Additionally, there are a lot of on-campus events the first year with other freshman and older students intermingling. Personally, it’s a very comforting environment where I found many of my closest friends and mentors who are helping me through my college career right now. Without the Foundation year experience, I truly believe that I would not be as prepared as I am now for the future.

Explore the Foundation Studio Program

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