A Trojan horse caught the eye of students as they went to class Monday morning. Many were seen musing at the 13-foot tall, wooden horse with puzzled and amazed expressions.
The horse was built by freshmen Lauren Hudelson and Amanda Lorch as their humanities 102 creativity project. The assignment was to put eight hours of work into a creative project that related to either humanities 101 or 102, but the self-described competitive duo said they decided to take things to the extreme.
Their Trojan horse took a total of four weeks and 70 hours of work.
“It started as a joke,” Hudelson said. “Our professor mentioned some past projects during class. One of the ones she mentioned was a catapult, and we were kind of like, ‘OK, let’s build something bigger than a catapult.’”
Hudelson explained that the structure is mostly supported by a metal frame, which Lorch’s father helped them weld together.
“Most of the metal is from my old tree house that we just took down,” Lorch said. “That’s what’s supporting the structure. Very little of the wood is actually weight bearing.
A project of this magnitude required lots of materials, but, according to Lorch, they did it almost for free. Aside from the metal, they also acquired approximately 30 old pallets from Lowes, Home Depot and various other stores.
The night before their presentation, the duo, with the help of several friends, took two trips to transport the deconstructed horse from Lorch’s house in Johnson City.
“We did it all that night because we wanted people to be surprised and curious about it just like the Trojans were,” Hudelson said.
On campus, facing a rainstorm that turned into a flood warning, they assembled the pieces in the spot where it now stands in front of Derthick Hall.
Lorch and Hudelson submitted a proposal at the end of February before beginning their project. When they submitted the proposal, they did not include the measurements, but Dr. Kayla Walker Edin, their professor, said, “I secretly hope you build this as big as you possibly can.” They originally planned for it to be 16 feet tall, but it ended up being only 13 feet tall and 9 feet long.
Both girls said it has been fun to see and hear people’s’ reactions.
“Not everyone knows who did it,” Lorch said, “so it’s been fun to hear them talk about it when one of us is standing right there.”
Hudelson’s favorite thing she overheard was when someone said, “Oh, they had so much time to put into that. It definitely wasn’t an engineering major.”
Little did they know that Hudelson, who is an engineering major, was one of the two involved.
Walker Edin said, “Mandy and Lauren’s hard work and adventurous spirits exemplify our best hopes for the humanities creativity projects each year. I am very proud of them both!”
Lorch said she would definitely do it again while Hudelson said it was fun but probably a one-time thing. They both agreed that the campus has made it rewarding.
“It’s fun for the Milligan community, because it is not just being shown in a class but it’s there for everyone to see,” Dr. Lee Blackburn, associate professor of history and humanities, said. “That’s going to be the stuff of humanities legends right there.”