Cities, Sketchbooks, and STEM: Reframing Studio Practices Through Cultural Immersion and Reflection

What happens when engineering students are given sketchbooks, not to master technique, but to slow down, look carefully, and reflect? This presentation shares a studio course taught abroad in Lille, France, where undergraduate engineering students engage in drawing as a tool for processing their experiences, connecting with a new culture, and exploring who they are becoming. The class is built around the core values of creativity, interconnectivity, and responsibility. Rather than focusing on copying images or technical skill (something engineers associate with art), the course reframes sketching as a practice of visual thinking, emotional reflection, and mindful observation.

Amid rising mental health challenges across STEM fields, many students describe feeling exhausted, isolated, or disconnected from meaning in their education. This course offers a different kind of space for expolring, expressing, and wondering. Students walk through the city, sketch what they see, reflect in journals, visit museums, and share work in critiques and exhibitions. They learn from artists, instructors, and one another. They often describe the class as a reset that reignites curiosity and invites a new way of seeing.

This course is part of a larger study abroad program that unites engineering and the arts through partnerships across colleges and institutions. It creates teaching opportunities for MFA students, invites STEM students into creative practices, and encourages universities to rethink global learning. Most importantly, it helps students find meaning and connection through visual engagement. The sketchbook becomes a space not only for drawing but for discovering self, place, and purpose.