I graduated from Austin College in 2008 with a major in Art and a minor in Biology. Just a few days later, I started graduate school for a Master’s in Biomedical Communications (medical illustration) from UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. My thesis at UTSW involved creating an interactive, online patient education tool for parents considering epilepsy surgery for their child. Since then I have been working for Statoil, a global energy company, in various design and communications roles. Most recently I have been working as one of Statoil’s social media managers with a special interest in analytics and growth strategies. While you could say that this is quite different from what I “trained” for, it’s really not that different at all. Each day I am challenged to consider the communications needs of many diverse groups and how to best deliver information to them. This challenge holds true whether you’re creating fine art late at night in the studio, illustrating complex medical surgeries, or designing Twitter infographics for an audience in another part of the world. At the end of the day, we’re all humans trying to make sense of the world around us – as we see from thousands of years of art history. A degree in the arts is certainly a valuable experience to broaden your perspective and prepare you for whatever lies ahead.