The interior design program at Southeast Missouri State University will celebrate five years of hard work to receive accreditation during their open house.

Interior design instructors Shelby Hicks and Carol Nesler and associate professor Dr. Michelle Brune began preparing for the National Kitchen and Bath Association accreditation in 2008 and finalized a timeline in 2011. They became an accredited program on May 11, 2013.

"All of that really started back in 2008 with looking at the standards," Nesler said. "Here are our classes. Are we teaching this? If we're not covering the standard, in which class can we cover it? So it was really a period of several years of doing all of this."

In order to become accredited, the program had to create a new, more innovative space for students to work. The new space includes an iPad lab and an exposed ceiling showing plumbing and electrical to help students learn. A kitchen and lighting lab also will be installed in the new space.

Instructors also had to revise their curricula and ensure that every student was learning the information from the NKBA Body of Knowledge, a set of standards created by professionals in the field.

Now that the program is NKBA accredited, the focus is on the Council for Interior Design accreditation, which they expect to be finished in 2015. The Hicks, Nesler and Brune are in the process of reviewing the requirements and have hired a CIDA consultant to assess what needs to be done.

"[The consultant] went through [our program] and [our department] only needs to make minor changes in working toward our CIDA accreditation," Hicks said. "As exhausted as we were, we were really very excited about the fact that that was her perception."

During the open house, attendees will be able to ask questions to the faculty, and student work from previous years will be displayed to show the community that the program is continuing to expand. It will take place from 1-3 p.m. on Sept. 18 in Scully Building room 224.

"We're hoping that it is a very casual event that people will ask questions, sort of face-to-face as opposed to a formal presentation," Hicks said.

The interior design department also will host a Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois NKBA meeting the next day. It will start at 5:30 p.m. and also will take place in Scully Building room 224.

Brune said that the meeting is a good way to teach students networking because it is a skill that they will need throughout their professional careers.

Hicks said the accreditations also would be tied into the meeting.

"We want people to know that we're moving forward with the CIDA accreditation," Hicks said. "The whole big idea is that the program will grow, and those accreditations are very important to the students."

Brune is excited for the start of a new school year with a new accreditation.

"Starting a new school year is always exciting. ... We have a new group, and they haven't been through this process that we've been through. Our older students have been through it with us, and they understand kind of the steps that we've taken to get where we are today," Brune said. "The newer students don't really know that, and so we want to share with them what the accreditation and is all about and how it's going to benefit them and their future."