A teenager rummages through a pile of tools and bicycle parts in his parents' backyard. He aims to fix broken things, or at least figure out how they work. He'll be sure to hide from his mom whatever doesn't pan out. But Eric Anderson's creativity isn't limited to broken toasters or old radios. He also likes to draw. So when a high school friend mentions how sketching and tinkering are what industrial design is all about, Anderson is intrigued. He knows what classes to take when he enrolls in a local Philadelphia college.
The design department's chair—Noel Mayo, a prominent African American designer—takes Anderson under his wing and even helps his prize pupil after graduation to navigate through a professional world that can be viewed by some as lacking diversity.
Anderson successfully lands several positions in high-profile consulting and corporate design areas, but he admits to his mentor that it's not creatively satisfying. Mayo isn't surprised. He always felt that Anderson's true passion lay in education and suggests during phone call after phone call that Anderson consider teaching.
One of those phone calls interrupts Anderson's lunch break. Mayo—by this time an Eminent Scholar at Ohio State University—offers to sponsor Anderson in that university's graduate design program. That conversation changes the trajectory of Anderson's career.
Now a Carnegie Mellon professor, Anderson is grateful for his mentor's support and wants to provide similar opportunities to students of color. He recently co-founded Designers for the 21st Century, a Web site (www.designers421.org) that serves as a virtual network for anybody interested in design—especially those from underrepresented populations. Anderson also has developed a weeklong Design Camp for African American teens, a project that he hopes will be replicated across the country, benefiting a new generation of aspiring designers.
—Kristi Ries (HNZ'07)
