Twenty years of impact: The Pearce Center’s creative journey
The Pearce Center for Professional Communication’s studio was donated by the Class of 1941 in the year 2004. Since the studio opened its doors, it has had so many classes of students studying under numerous specialties come together to share a passion for creation, writing and design. With the Studio’s vast history, its 20th Anniversary Celebration invited an array of people who currently are or once were participants in the Pearce Center’s numerous semester projects and programs.
In celebration of the milestone event, Pearce Center donors, current interns and clients and representatives from each of the Pearce Center programs — which span from undergraduates to postgraduate students and faculty — gathered in the Studio . Each program had the opportunity to showcase their work and discuss how to improve and tackle projects from previously unexplored angles with people outside of their program. The celebration provided a wonderful opportunity for inter-program collaboration.
Though having the opportunity to discuss work is always a blast, the opportunity for people to create lasting connections with individuals they previously would not have had the opportunity to meet was wonderful. Clients who previously had not met discussed what their interns were doing for their respective organizations and were able to share ideas as to how to improve each marketing plan further. 
New clients were able to discuss their Pearce experience with older clients and reflect on how each year, each semester, the interns continue to show their remarkable skills that are more reminiscent of seasoned professionals than undergraduate students. Even past interns who have graduated and moved on to industry jobs were impressed with the work of current interns and reminisced on the projects they once were tasked with during their own internships with Pearce.
Amber Padget, a past Pearce intern and current Clemson employee, reflected on the anniversary celebration and how much the Pearce Center has evolved since her participation.
“The Pearce Center Anniversary celebration event provided great examples of how the work of the Center has expanded and strengthened since my experience as an intern in 2012. I was excited to see the diverse set of projects that the interns are involved with, as well as their enthusiasm for the mission of the Pearce Center. I look forward to seeing how the Pearce Center continues to make an impact on Clemson and the community in the years to come!”
Interns who worked on the same clients years apart compared their experiences, as the projects clients approved became vastly more impactful with their organization, starting with designing newsletters and growing trust evolved into a complete website transformation and rebranding of the organization over the years.
Clients were also able to reminisce about how much interns had been able to get done in only a year’s time. Even with a client’s team being changed every semester, projects have made leaps and bounds in progress. What surprises a lot of clients, new and old, is how consistent progress is made each semester despite the change in staff and creative perspective. Tamara Dourney, the representative for Habitat for Humanity, saw for herself just how effective each new team is while remaining consistent with their visions for the organization.
“The anniversary celebration was such a fun event, and I truly enjoyed the opportunity to highlight the incredible work of the Pearce Center interns. Their contributions have been invaluable to Pickens County Habitat for Humanity, particularly in designing social media and newsletter content that keeps our community informed and engaged with our mission. During a recent staff transition, their dedication ensured we maintained a strong and consistent public presence — a testament to their professionalism and talent. We are so grateful for this impactful partnership.”
Moving forward, the Pearce Center will continue to impress clients with our products while working to reach more organizations to collaborate with our students.
By: Lizzie Farrell