Weiyi Cai, '15

"Currently I'm a Data Visualization Developer on Reuters' graphics team. The role is a combination of a lot of things: digital design, art direction, visualizing data, collecting and analyzing data, coding, drawing, etc. I realized a while back that I enjoy being an omnivorous designer who is able to utilize different tools and visual languages to tell stories. I love that my current job allows me to do that, even though there are confines given the size and standard of the company. This year, we have been focusing more on creating larger scale web projects that provide insights, analysis and all in all extra layers to the news, which is very exciting. Every project presents me with different challenges and teaches me new things, both on the technical side and knowledge of the world side. I love that what I do could potentially help others understand current events and issues better. In addition, the whole news graphics/design and data journalism is a very niche, friendly and inspiring community."

"Looking back, what I appreciate about the COM department the most is that it helped me find what I'm truly passionate about (in my case, it is visual communication), and let me forge my own path. Communication is such a broad discipline, but the department managed to provide me with a comprehensive survey of this big world and gave me a taste of all kinds of possibilities in this world from theory to practice: filmmaking, marketing, web design, social media, etc. It may be a cliche to say but I feel that the department opens doors and we get to choose which ones we want to walk in. Sometimes we walk in more than one door so it is important to have the opportunity and resources to try different things. The department is fun and ambitious at the same time, which is how I aspire to be in life. I have also definitely benefited from good relationships with the faculty who are supportive and open-minded."