hi everyone! my name is alana and i’m a sophomore at mcmurtry. i’m majoring in human-factors engineering and have two minors; entrepreneurship and african/african-american studies.

i’m from palo alto, ca and plan to work in ux/ui design or product design in the future. my path as a black teen and witness to silicon valley’s privilege has informed my interest in technology, business, and social justice—particularly their impact upon the lived experiences of marginalized communities whose needs and perspectives have been long ignored and neglected. i hope to use the design thinking process to combine my personal experiences with academic learnings to actively solve a social need.

at rice, i work for the center for african/african-american studies managing all their social media and event planning. i’m also head of product development for blyss, a new dating platform that completely facilitates the dating process — look out for more info on instagram @blyssdating! i’m part of bsa, nsbe and rice design.

i am very proud of making my major (pulling/combining coursework from different disciplines, finding mentors, writing a proposal, and finally getting approval) and creating all products for blyss (website, mobile app wireframes, and mvp). one thing i want to make in the future is more websites/mobile app designs for start-ups. with engi 210, i hope to learn more skills to create physical products, and i am especially excited for the unit on sewing.