ALUMNI

The BXA Interdisciplinary Degree Programs support an outstanding group of innovative students. These students are creative thinkers who have unique visions of how their two (or more) disciplines combine to offer them an individualized education. They are often campus leaders who are honored with both artistic and scholarly awards. BXA students frequently complete internships and senior projects that contribute to shaping their career path. Post-graduation may include graduate school, service (such as the Teach for America Program), or employment related to one or both of their chosen concentrations.

As of May 2009, 243 students have graduated from BHA and 33 from BSA.

It is always a great joy to hear from BHA and BSA alumni. Their lives continue to reflect their beautifully textured and individualized undergraduate experiences.

Alumni Highlights

Diane Loviglio
BHA, Anthropology and Architecture, Carnegie Mellon University, 2005
www.wattbot.com

I received my Bachelor of Humanities and Arts in Anthropology and Architecture from Carnegie Mellon University in 2005, focusing on sustainable design. At Carnegie Mellon, I served as Project Manager for the first and largest green roof on campus, Sustainable Materials Guru for the Solar Decathlon, and Designer/Director of Eco-Reps, their first peer-to-peer environmental education program. I was most recently co-chair of the San Francisco Green Roof Task Force and a research assistant and recruiter for Intel Research Berkeley's Bright Green study. I am now co-founder and VP of Business Development for Wattbot.

People are always shocked that I’m not working at an architecture firm or digging up fossils. (I’m constantly reminding them that anthropology is an entirely different field than archeology.) But then I have to justify why I’m not drawing or writing research papers. It’s because I wouldn’t be happy doing the same thing all day, everyday. BHA students have talents that cross disciplines and they usually find themselves creating the jobs they want. I know I did. My days are filled with various tasks from operations to sales to marketing to customer service to management to business development to market research to recruiting. I’m creating my own company - that is one of the biggest undefined design challenges out there.

Marisa MacIsaac
BHA, 20th Century Visual Culture with an additional major in European Studies, Carnegie Mellon University, 2002

As I travel the world, the people I meet can never quite understand how I ended up in that particular place, doing that particular thing, whether it’s pursuing a Masters in law, politics and economics of the European Union in Germany with colleagues who are shaping European innovation policy or working on a tall ship in Maine or a dotcom in Boston or learning Kuchipudi dance in India. Yet it all makes sense to me. Just like in my time at CMU, I’m able to pursue whatever strikes my fancy and do it in a way that is cost effective and builds on all my prior experiences.

At CMU, I studied the relationship between art and society. I coordinated Kaleidoscope 2000 and 2002, completed a research project about the Carnegie International Exhibition and worked with another student to create a video about how CMU students work for Meeting of the Minds. But more than this, I gained a lot of skills which serve me well today, such as understanding the technical side of things, knowing how to manage and market, visual skills and grasping that no project exists in a vacuum. Most importantly, I know that anything is possible.

I spent a semester in Prague studying arts and social change and fell in love with travel. After graduation, I wanted to travel more and so I did the logical thing and joined the tourism industry. I started a seasonal tour business on the small Maine island where my family resides. I purchased a six passenger golf cart and started taking people on 90 minute tours that explained the visual development of the island. Knowing how to relate the story of a small island to the bigger world won me many repeat customers and media coverage. I was able to save enough during the summer to travel and pursue other avenues in the winter. I spent several seasons leading student tours in Washington, D.C. and New York. I learned Czech and German and co-wrote a guide for theatre artists in Boston. Recently I’ve shifted to a job with the State Department and am opening the new U.S. Consulate General in Hyderabad, India.

In many ways I feel that I am still pursuing my BHA degree. I’m still striving to understand the relationship between arts and society. I don’t worry about being one thing or the other, because I need all of my experiences and skills and knowledge to complete my next project, whatever it may be.

Natasha Patamapongs
BHA, International Relations and Music Technology, with minors in History of the Arts and Jazz Vocal Performance, Carnegie Mellon University, 2008
www.mellowmotif.com



I am a major label artist (Warner Music Group, Thailand; 2009). I recently released a self-titled album with "Mellow Motif", a jazz/latin band that I formed with a CMU colleague, Eugene Ang. Since its national release, Mellow Motif has gotten overwhelmingly positive reviews and press coverage and will soon launch in various countries throughout Southeast Asia. Incidentally I will be the first Thai Jazz vocalist to be internationally released, and have made appearances on national TVs and have been interviewed by many major newspapers and magazines. I am currently working as an artist, singer, arranger, producer, songwriter, and project manager for a cross-cultural music project that I started.

I was recently invited by the Brazilian Ambassador of Thailand to perform a concert on the Brazilian national day on behalf of the Brazilian Embassy for all the Ambassadors in Thailand and for the public. With support from the Brazilian Embassy, my next project will be a full-scale Brazilian Music album featuring Thai instruments, arrangements, and lyrics. I hope for this album to combine the cultures of both countries and to create a new musical landscape that has never been done before.

I received my Bachelor of Humanities and Artsin International Relations and Music Technology, with minors in History of the Arts and Jazz Vocal Performance from CMU exactly a year ago in 2008. I have to admit that I felt a little vague at first when I was still in school, but now my career has really employed every single little thing I've learned from my degree. I followed my heart and went where my interests lead me, and somehow everything came together nicely. Everything that I've learned from the BHA program has really sharpened me as a person with interdisciplinary interests. I am not doing many separate things at the same time, but rather combining everything I can do, making them into one piece. With my Music Technology concentration, I have the required knowledge to produce and work in a studio as well as to perform. Being able to design my own curriculum in my International Relations concentration apparently raised my awareness of Music in the different context of many cultures in the world, as well as made me a better coordinator and manager for projects that use music as a medium to connect different cultures together. Without the strong interdisciplinary emphasis of the BHA program, I really couldn't imagine myself doing what I am doing today.

Yann Seznec
BHA, Music and Anthropology, Carnegie Mellon University, 2004
MSc, Sound Design, University of Edinburgh, 2007
www.wiiloopmachine.com
www.theamazingrolo.net

I am currently an entrepreneur supported by the University of Edinburgh in Scotland (through the EPIS program), where I received my masters degree in 2007. As part of my degree I designed creative music software for the Nintendo Wii, which I am now developing into a commercial product for the Wii and other consoles, hopefully to be released sometime in 2009. I have also received support from NESTA (National Endowment for Science, Technology, and the Arts, UK) for this business, and have appeared on Scottish and British television as well as in major newspapers and magazines from around the world.

Parallel to this, I am also working as a freelance artist, sound designer and musician. I am playing piano, guitar, bass, trumpet, and electronic sound manipulation in an upcoming production of Mother Courage at the Dundee Rep Theatre, and have recently worked on and composed music for several other theatrical productions in the UK and France. I have produced several albums in the past few years, as well as created the sound design and music for numerous short films. Most recently I was awarded a Scottish Arts Council residency at Abertay University in Dundee, to develop new media based art.

Right now my career is more interdisciplinary than I ever thought possible, and I feel enormously lucky. My BHA degree showed me not only that it was possible to do everything that interested me, but that my various interests can all work together to form a cohesive whole that is stronger than the sum of its parts. I do not feel like I am switching between being a businessman, an artist, a software developer, and a musician, but rather at any one time I am all of these things, and each contributes to the other. The BHA program provided me with my first opportunity to approach my career in that fashion, and now I would never have it any other way.

Yann's Photo Courtesy of Peter Duffy