Alayo Oloko

What’ve you enjoyed most about your area of study? Was there a particular discovery, new skill or way of thinking, or insight that you found especially valuable? Please share an example from your favorite class or experience.

The thing that I have most enjoyed about studying theater arts is the collaborative creative work. I love being able to come together with different people with skills in different areas and brainstorm with each other and seeing how far our collective creativity can take us. This semester, working on the scenic design for the department’s spring show, Antigonick, I’ve really enjoyed the different conversations I’ve had with others involved in the project because they always make me think and spark new ideas.

How does the knowledge from this field, or your interest in it, combine with your other major or minor studies at MIT?

Theater has really helped me to shift the way I think about mechanical engineering. How products look, how people interact with them, and how they make people feel are important to their overall design. This isn’t always emphasized in my engineering classes, but it is really important and is something I now think about a lot.

An MIT education includes study in the scientific, technical, social science, arts, and humanities fields. How do you think that wide range of knowledge and perspectives will be valuable to you – for your career success and for your enjoyment of life?

I’ve taken a wide range of classes during my time at MIT, and I think that overall, I have benefitted from the different perspectives they have given me. For my furure career success, I think this is helpful because I feel like I have the increased capacity to approach problems from different angles. Another way that it is helpful is with collaboration. In theater, I regularly collaborate with people with very different skill sets than me to create one cohesive final product. In the future, I think this will help me in my career to work and communicating across teams.

Regarding life enjoyment, Participating in theater at MIT has opened my eyes to new possibilities for the future that I might never have known about or considered if not for all the professors, lecturers, staff, and fellow students I’ve talked to.

What are your plans for the future?

I’m still figuring out my plans for the future. Ideally, I’ll end up doing something related to entertainment or design. I’m excited to take the creative and technical skills I’ve learned at MIT and apply them in meaningful ways.