As sophomores gathered for their Orientation September 9 at Discovery World, they were greeted to a new year of focus in their majors by faculty and three alumni who advised:
- Do what you enjoy as you learn more and more about yourself!
- Relish the year as an opportunity to make friends for life!
- Embrace subjects you think may not interest you – you’ll be surprised!
- Don’t give up – it’s okay to change your major and to follow your heart!
- You may not know what you want to do – but you and everyone else will figure it out!
Chelsea Atwell ’11, Junior Art Director at Laughlin Constable, shared her work with her main client – Associated Bank and the current Aaron Rodgers campaign – and said sophomore year was one of the best of her life. Having started as an Illustration major, she said switching to Communication Design was one of the best decisions of her life, and allowed her to incorporate illustration work with design work.
Brooklyn Henke ’09 is a second-year graduate student in drawing and painting at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and taking courses at UWM’s School of Freshwater Sciences. She advised students to invest heavily in their Liberal Studies classes and said she “would have loved some of the science classes you have now.”
“Embrace the stuff you may think is weird,” she said, and pursue internships in the fine arts, such as hers at the Milwaukee Public Museum, where she painted the mural for the museum’s 125th Anniversary. Henke applied for graduate study after a successful year off doing commission work in murals and commercial art.
Max Estes ’99 of Oslo, Norway, writes and illustrates children’s books primarily in Norway, but also for clients in the United States and France. “MIAD wasn’t just learning about art and design,” he said. “Half the load was learning about who I was, and that has a whole lot to do with being successful as an artist and designer.”
“Being in a weak economy shouldn’t be terrifying,” he said, “because you will make ingenious decisions, starting right where you are now. Making smart observations, and being curious, helped me build on who I wanted to be, and is one of the reasons publishers want to work with me now.”
Following the alumni conversations, Foundations Chair Jason S. Yi encouraged sophomores to think of themselves as learners, not students, who are empowered to relish challenges and “break things down,” just as faculty do.
The students then participated in discussions regarding the concept of “shelter” as a prelude to MIAD’s Shelter Event September 16 in Catalano Square.
The afternoon concluded with a welcome into their majors by MIAD faculty and discussion of what to look forward in the year ahead.