Student Spotlight: Taking Off at Boeing
Ananya Johri (MIIPS ‘25) is using her internship at Boeing as a launching point for her career pivot
By Hannah Brelsford
Ananya Johri (MIIPS ‘25) began her academic career at the Rhode Island School of Design, where she got her double bachelor degree in architecture and in fine arts. Additionally, she had minors in history, philosophy, and social sciences. After graduating, she moved to New York City to work at Ogawa Depardon Architects, a boutique architecture firm, where she worked for 3 years as a project lead architectural designer on projects of various scales and budgets - both residential and commercial.
While working, she discovered that she wanted to broaden her knowledge and expertise within physical design to get to the center of user problems. When looking for a master's degree, she honed in on MIIPS, the Master of Integrated Innovation for Products and Services, at Carnegie Mellon University’s Integrated Innovation Institute.
“What attracted me to MIIPS was the combination of product and service design with business strategy.”
The Fast Facts: A Summary of Ananya’s Time in the MIIPS Program
Pursuing her MIIPS Degree 📚
- Pursued MIIPS degree to strengthen physical design skills and solve user-centered problems
- Wants to expand knowledge from physical design to digital design
Learning from the Interdisciplinary Curriculum 🤔
- The User Experience Research: Theory, Methods, and Practice course
- Her Capstone Experience with sponsor PNC Bank
Interning at Boeing 🛫
- Digital Strategy and Experience Intern at Boeing Global Services on the RAD CX team
What’s Next 🎓
- Learning how design connects to the real world
- Making parallel lists for things she likes and does not like to provide clarity within her career path
- Enjoying her time in the classroom until her graduation in December of 2025
Pursuing her MIIPS Degree
Ananya Johri chose the MIIPS program because she “wanted to understand how design relates to the real world.” With her previous undergraduate experience in architecture, she was ready to dive deeper into the discipline, in the context of industry application. Additionally, she wanted to explore product and service design from a business perspective.
By revisiting essential design concepts and learning about engineering and business concepts, she deepened her knowledge in two ways—by seeing how her classmates perceived design and by learning from her peers about their disciplines.
After graduating, Ananya plans to use the MIIPS degree to pivot from her background and work experience in physical design to digital design. She credits the integrated MIIPS curriculum for making such a pivot possible.
“I get to see what design fundamentals look like for someone without that same background. It helps show me what people with different academic backgrounds think is important.”
Learning from the Interdisciplinary Curriculum
Cross-functional collaboration in the classroom has helped Ananya communicate well with her classmates, despite their differing disciplines.
In the User Experience Research: Theory, Methods, and Practice course, taught by Professor Francine Gemperle, the work in the classroom complemented her real-world work experience.
“The output from the class resembles the work that I am doing at Boeing right now. I think the curriculum, especially this class, is setting us up to be successful once we go full-time.”
Ananya's capstone experience with her corporate sponsor, PNC Bank, provided her with another valuable hands-on learning opportunity. Throughout the capstone project, students are challenged to tackle industry problems as part of interdisciplinary teams working alongside a corporate sponsor. Ananya found her capstone experience particularly meaningful because her team was mentored by Minette Vaccariello (MPD '06), an alumna of the program who has also completed the capstone experience. Minette serves as the Experience Innovation Design Principal at PNC Bank.
Ananya’s team’s biweekly meetings with Minette were extremely helpful because she was familiar with the capstone process and understood the possible outcomes from the project. This allowed her to give the students invaluable feedback
Regarding the project, she stated, “I am proud of our capstone project. It seemed like PNC Bank liked it as well and wanted to incorporate our work into something they might do in the future.”
The timing of the capstone project in the second semester, right before the internship process, helped set her up for hands-on working experience within corporate settings.
Interning at Boeing
Currently, Ananya is a Digital Strategy and Experience Intern at Boeing. She landed this role by researching—a lot. She developed a list of aspirational companies that she wanted to work for, networked, and had informational interviews to learn more about people currently working in her dream roles.
Her aspiration to work at Boeing came from How Things Can be Made, the core engineering course in the MIIPS program, taught by Professor Brandon Bodily. Professor Bodily used a Boeing case study for the students to learn from. “It was actually through his engineering class that my interest in Boeing was piqued because of a case that he showed us. So I made a list of companies that I was interested in and went from there.”
This role is ideal for Ananya as she seeks to transition into digital design while collaborating with designers, CX strategists, and researchers on her team at Boeing. During her first few weeks at Boeing, Ananya took the time to understand her surroundings and identify how her role fit within the team. Through this experience, she has had the opportunity to engage with many individuals who offer valuable insights into working in the industry.
This internship has been challenging as it has pushed her out of her comfort zone and exposed her to new experiences. However, she is gaining valuable insights about herself and her professional identity through this journey.
This internship experience is unlike anything she has encountered before. Boeing is a large company, while she has only worked in a small company before. Currently, she is living on the West Coast, having previously only lived on the East Coast. Additionally, she has always focused on physical design within architecture, but now she is working in digital strategy and experience. These changes are helping her to explore future career options and gain insight into what it might look like before making a commitment to a permanent full-time position.
What’s Next
This summer, Ananya is exploring her career goals and aspirations. She has created two lists: one containing the things she is interested in and another for the things she is not interested in. This approach helps her identify suitable opportunities when she encounters new options or seeks them out, ensuring that she can easily differentiate between what aligns with her interests and what doesn’t.
“I have my lists going and both of them are growing rapidly, so as I look to make decisions as to where I want to apply full-time, I am going to be referencing those a lot.”
Ananya has a clear vision for her future: she wants to live in a big city and work in a traditional office setting rather than remotely. She thrives on human interaction, whether in personal or professional environments. To prepare for what lies ahead, she is actively organizing her preferences regarding her future work, and she is excited about the opportunities that await her.
In the meantime, Ananya is enjoying her time at the iii. She makes the most of her breaks by relaxing on the red couch in the building between classes, spending quality time with her friends, and cherishing these final moments with her classmates.
