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Michelle Chen didn’t take the road most traveled, and that’s exactly why her story stands out. A 2023 graduate of ����ԭ�� (����ԭ��), Michelle transferred to UCLA’s prestigious Design Media Arts (DMA) program, a major with an acceptance rate of just 5 percent.  “The year I was accepted, they only took 15 transfer students out of hundreds of applicants,” Michelle says.

It wasn’t always clear she’d land here. Growing up partly in Taiwan and partly in Irvine, Michelle explored digital design early on, encouraged by her web designer mom. “I was playing with Adobe Illustrator and other creative tools when I was 10 or 11,” she recalls. But traditional art didn’t quite click for her. “I could never find my own style.” The turning point came during her senior year of high school while stuck at home during the pandemic. She discovered 3D digital art through Blender tutorials and couldn’t stop. 

Michelle originally enrolled at ����ԭ�� as a psychology major but soon shifted gears to interactive media arts, with ����ԭ��’s Summer Bridge program helping her to adjust to the transition from high school to college. She found a supportive and collaborative environment at ����ԭ��, which allowed her to explore game design and animation. Instructor Patricia Beckman became a key mentor, introducing Michelle to the foundations of 3D modeling and animation. “She used to work for big studios and inspired me to build my portfolio. She saw something in me before I could.” 

That encouragement gave Michelle the confidence to aim high. Despite her doubts, she submitted her UCLA DMA application — at 11:59 p.m., just one minute before the deadline. “Patricia told me, ‘Why would you think you wouldn’t get in?’ That was a big moment for me.” 

Michelle also credits the exposure she had at ����ԭ�� to fellow students who were or had been in the working world.  

“In my portfolio class, the lead on one of our group projects had already worked at Blizzard and other gaming companies, but had gone back to school to continue his education,” she says. “I learned a lot from him because of his prior work experience. He had a completely different trajectory to get there and seeing how successful he had been outside and because he had not had a conventional path, it really opened my eyes to how there is no one certain set path in life. I could see that I don’t have to stick with one path just because it’s what my parents want for me.”

Now thriving in her first year at UCLA (her parents are also alumni), Michelle has worked on projects that blend creativity and technology to inform user experience. “I really like how collaborative the learning environment is and how creative it is,” she adds. “You get to experiment with a lot of types of media and incorporate social and political commentary or psychological elements into your work.”  

She’s since interned at Kellogg, creating 3D ads for brands like Froot Loops, and at Patreon as a creative intern. Presently, Michelle is a social media intern at Webtoon. Looking ahead, she hopes to become a creative director in marketing, blending her passion for design with leadership. 

Michelle offers this advice to students feeling the weight of choosing a career: “Life isn’t a competition, and you’re not running out of time. Everything feels urgent when you’re young, but you have room to explore and figure out what works for you.” 

She also wants to break down stereotypes about careers in art. “A lot of people think being an artist means you’ll be broke. But in fields like digital media and marketing, there are so many opportunities to thrive.”

Michelle’s journey isn’t defined by tradition — it’s defined by discovery. At ����ԭ��, she learned it’s okay to take your time, pivot, and grow. That lesson, she says, made all the difference.