My Story
As a current student at Carnegie Mellon’s Entertainment Technology Center, I look back into my past and find highs and lows, but no regrets.
I grew up in Caracas amongst video games and fantasy books, dedicating my afternoons to Zelda dungeons and impersonating my favorite heroes. At age 14 I had my first incursion into theatre and at 15 I discovered the newly released Dungeons and Dragons third edition. That was when it all started.
After graduating from high school I confronted the lack of the double-major concept in Venezuela and so hesitated between an artistic and technologic degree. I finally enrolled as an Engineering student and decided to keep in touch with my artistic side as much as possible.
Between 2006 and late 2007 I became lost in my own struggle. I was nearing completion of my Telecommunications Engineering degree while at the same time acting in theater performances for the sixth straight year. I had taken sports journalism and photography workshops and worked both as an actor and sports journalist; but at the same time I had worked as an assistant for Programming courses and interned as a software developer. I was proud of all this, but more uncertain than ever before about my future.
Then it came time to look for Graduate Programs. I searched magazines and the Internet, talked to anyone that could help – always in the lookout for programs that mentioned words like “interdisciplinary” or “dual-degree”. I still refused to commit to only one side of my brain.
I was having a hard time finding anything that suited me and so at the point where I had almost given up, I found the ETC – the light at the end of the tunnel. I had ongoing applications for Information Management, Network Security and dual MBA-Information degrees when I found the ETC and its Entertainment Technology Program through Carnegie Mellon’s website. When I got a call from the University of Michigan for an interview, I decided to extend the trip to visit the ETC and see first-hand what it was all about.
The outcome came in the form of a revelation. After interviewing for an MBA in a business school, I stepped into the Spaceship that is the ETC building and felt like I was arriving home after a very long journey – a 22 year-long journey, in fact. All thoughts of Management and Networking vanished and as I stepped into the Spaceship I just knew. This was it.
The ETC is both the place that makes the most of my past and that shapes me best for the future I want. It is the place to bridge two sides of me that have always been held together by only a thread. It is the opportunity I have always been waiting for to test myself and work with people whose stories are a lot like mine. It is, above all, a place I am proud to call “home”.
