Senior Spotlight 2019 — We Miss You Already!
Here are all the seniors we interviewed about any future endeavors they’re heading into as well as little bits and pieces of what they’ve experienced as a designer at UC San Diego!
If you want to read more about each senior, click on the read more button for the full interview.
Carl Dunga - Nanoengineering
Future plans?
My plans after graduating are to go back home, save up enough money to buy my own car, and also focus more time into applying for full-time jobs. I also plan on working on side projects to strengthen my portfolio.
How did you get into design?
After working on UCSD CKI’s club website for a few months, I hit a wall in terms of creating content people actually used. I was tired and my work was going to waste. I needed UI/UX design skills. Then, I saw a Design at UCSD poster near Library Walk. I decided to give it a try. It was a great decision! I learned so many new perspectives and tools to improve the UX of the websites I was working on. Read More
Franklin Moraio - Math-Applied Science
Future plans?
My plans after graduation are to find a full-time job in the design industry and work for a few years before either pursuing higher education and/or working on some personal projects. I would also love to travel if I have the chance!
With all your knowledge now, what would you tell your first-year self?
With all of my knowledge now, I would tell my first-year self to really focus on doing what you love to do. Don’t be scared to change what you are doing now; uncertainty is okay. Don’t super stress about getting perfect grades or studying a subject/being in a field that pays a lot. Things don’t always need to be perfect and plans don’t always need to be set in stone. Do what you love and the money will come. Read More
Harriet Wang -Cognitive Science
Future plans?
I plan to find a job in the Front End Web Development or UX Design field, save up some money and eat fancy pineapple pizza every day. JK about the pizza part.
What has been your favorite thing about designing at UCSD?
The Cogsci and Design community are full of the most welcoming people I know. Everyone is talented, different, and kind. Truthfully they inspire me all the time. I feel like I can genuinely thrive with my peers in this super competitive school. Read More
Jan Eric De Castro -Cognitive Science
Future Plans?
Last summer, I was a design intern at Workday. Now, I’m excited to say that I’m coming back as a full-time Product Designer this fall.
How did you get into design?
I initially came into UC San Diego thinking I was going into pre-med or engineering. I started out as an undeclared major and it took me a while until I found a direction that I really wanted to follow. My whole freshman year was dedicated to exploring different orgs, majors, and career paths until a friend introduced me into Cogs HCI and design. I was simply amazed by it — a major that encompasses an intersection of tech, design, and social impact. I was so excited by the field that once I went back to UCSD sophomore year, I declared HCI as my major and started exploring UCSD’s design scene. I began attending Design at UCSD events, joined Design for America, and got involved with the Design Lab. This is when I started building my portfolio and got a better grasp at all things design. Looking back, these were all invaluable experiences because I’ve met many incredibly talented individuals at UCSD and have learned so much from each of them along the way. Read More
Jason Liu -
Cognitive Science
Future Plans?
My plan after graduating in Fall is to find a design-related job. If I don’t find one right away, then I would most likely go back home. I would love to stay in San Diego though because there’s so much to do in the city!
What have been some of your struggles to develop as a designer and how did you overcome it?
For me and a lot of designers I know, making a portfolio is one of the hardest things to do. I told myself I would make it during the summer after my second year, but I didn’t actually make mine until the beginning of my fourth year. It’s something that’s really daunting because it is extremely important for finding jobs/internships and there isn’t a hard deadline for finishing it so there isn’t as much urgency. For me, what helped was going to a place that would limit distractions, like a cafe, and making progress little by little. Something that I constantly told myself was that it doesn’t need to be perfect and that I could refine it later. I’m still constantly working on it, but getting your first iteration up and online is so relieving. Read More
John Daniel Domine -
Cognitive Science
Future Plans?
I’m planning to find a job in San Diego and stay another year to explore all of the spots I didn’t get to explore during my time at undergrad. I also plan to continue developing my skills as a designer, doing as much creative freelance work as I can. In general, I’m keeping my future open-ended, and I’m looking forward to seeing where life takes me!
With all your knowledge now, what would you tell your first-year self?
Buy Adobe Creative Suite and practice. It’ll be one of the most important, fun, and powerful tools that you’ll be using in the future. Also, focus! You can’t make any progress with your goals until you really focus. Read More
Kaila Lee -
Cognitive Science
Future Plans?
Excited to spend some time abroad in Japan and Hong Kong post-grad! After that, I’ll be starting as a UX Content Strategist at Facebook in the fall.
With all your knowledge now, what would you tell your first-year self?
There’s no such thing as a perfect plan. I think it’s easy to fixate on a certain path early on even though there are so many opportunities and possibilities to explore. Having an open-minded mentality and ‘can do’ attitude truly pay off — you never know where new doors will lead you!
Read More
Jordan Daley -
Cognitive Science
Future Plans?
My plans for post-grad are to stay in San Diego for a bit while I do this UX internship I recently started. The goal is to use this summer to try and land a more permanent design role in UX research or data visualization, all while focusing more on my dance training for the future (I am also considering dancing professionally for a bit). Design-wise I am really narrowing in on some companies focused heavily on the environment and green solutions (but I can’t say anymore 🤫)
How did you get into design?
I got into design kinda randomly my 3rd year. I met Elmer in a dance class in fall and he was talking about this design at UCSD thing and I gave it a try. I was pretty lost at first and fumbled around for about 2 or 3 quarters until I got into user research this last fall quarter but tbh it was all luck that I found the design community here and had time to dive in these last two years.
Read More
Katya Noble -
Cognitive Science
Future Plans?
I’ll go where the wind takes me. I’ll be staying at UCSD for one more quarter, but after that, I’m hoping to do something in Product Design that involves social impact! But who knows, I’m a pretty whimsical person — maybe I’ll give up the grind and freelance design from country to country.
What have been some of your struggles to develop as a designer and how did you overcome it?
There’s a lot of opportunities, but my heavy involvement in everything made me feel drained pretty quickly. My passion for design led me to give my all in every project I was in, but that was unsustainable. There are certain baseline responsibilities student designers have such as creating a strong portfolio, maintaining good grades, being an effective team player, etc. I stacked a lot on top and attempting to give 100% to every challenge that presented itself began taking a toll on me. I had to be honest with myself to balance my commitments. Now, I’m focusing just on the opportunities that are the most meaningful to me. Read More
Lauren Choy -
Cognitive Science
Future Plans?
This summer I’ll be at Workday as a Product Design intern! I’m super excited to learn more and grow as a designer. Aside from my internship, I am hoping to travel more and hang out with the homies!
With all your knowledge now, what would you tell your first-year self?
With all the knowledge I have accumulated over the past 4 years, I would tell my first-year self that everyone has their own path. You might feel like everyone is ahead of you, but in reality, everyone has their own pace too. College and life isn’t a race so don’t rush through it thinking you need to reach the destination. Take your time, smell the flowers, talk to the people, and hone your own craft. Read More
Darin Lee -
Cognitive Science
Future Plans?
I’m planning on either staying in San Diego or moving back to San Francisco to find a full-time position in the design field. (I’d really appreciate any career and design advice!)
With all your knowledge now, what would you tell your first-year self?
I would tell my past self this: care more about actually learning through the process rather than focusing completely on creating deliverables. There will always be a delicate balance between focusing energy on producing work that is most easily marketable to the end recipient — whether that be a professor, peers, or even clients — and building valuable skills by focusing energy on the process itself.
Don’t take shortcuts. Keep an open mind. Develop your skills so you have the leverage to do work that you find rewarding and aligning with your values.
P.S. you probably don’t also need an economics major, first-year Darin.
Read More
Nathan Mansur -
Cognitive Science
Future Plans?
This summer, I’ll be interning at Intuit in San Diego! I’ll be returning Fall quarter to finish up my last two classes. After that, I’m hoping to explore Asia or Europe before I start looking into full time.
How did you get into design?
I came to UCSD as the typical undeclared major trying to get into Computer Science. Back then, it was basically needed for students to have a 4.0 GPA in the pre-screening classes. So, that definitely went out the window during Winter quarter of my first year. I then decided to go into ICAM; however, after a year and a half with the major, I found that it was not for me. One of my close friends, Aman Gupta, told me to try Cognitive Science. I started with Cogs 1 my spring quarter and decided to make the switch into the major. During the fall of my junior year, I took Design 1 and started going out to Design at UCSD events. The rest was history from there. Read More
Aman Gupta -
Cognitive Science
Future Plans?
After graduation, I will be traveling to Europe for a couple of weeks and then starting work at Slack as a Partner Engineer!
What has been your favorite thing about designing at UCSD?
Being surrounded by passionate and inspiring designers through many experiences offered at UCSD is something I’m incredibly grateful for. Through classes, such as DSGN100 and COGS102C, I’ve practiced working with cognitively diverse groups of design-minded peers that I would not have otherwise been able to learn from. Student organizations like Design at UCSD and Design for America have given me considerable feedback on my design skills. Design for America particularly helped me polish my soft skills and inspired me to do more work serving the underprivileged. Read More
Emily Nguyen -
Cognitive Science
Future Plans?
This summer, I’ll be joining Vox Media as a Brand Design Intern! I’ll be returning to UCSD for one more quarter, and will hopefully start working full time after that. There are so many different fields of design, and I’ll be using my extra time to explore more and figure out what I really want to do.
How did you get into design?
Design became a hobby of mine going into high school, and I ended up taking graphic design classes all four years. I wasn’t familiar with design outside of graphic and print design, and originally entered college pursuing software engineering as a Mathematics-Computer Science major. After getting more involved with the design community at UCSD, I discovered that there were so many areas where my passions for design and tech intersected. After that, I changed my major to Human-Computer Interaction! Read More
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