Melinda Agron, Yale School of Architecture, M. Arch I + M.B.A.

I actively work against the narrative that has been framed for me. Within the walls of Rudolph a business school student is driven by goals of “power” and “capital,” the antithesis of the loftier goals of Architecture and Design. Those of us who choose to enroll in both schools are not considered to be bridging a gap, but are destined to be “developers” and “employers.” On their own these words do not read as inherently wrong, but when uttered together through the lips of an architecture student they are malignant. While we tout being an interdisciplinary field within an interdisciplinary university, straying from the norm creates noise that evades classification. I seek to be both an architect and a businesswoman, a designer and a leader. The two modes of work are not mutually exclusive, and yet I feel a constant need to give definition to the overlap. I do not yet know what my narrative is, but I hope to find space within which to frame it.