Christendom’s Career and Professional Development Office hosted a Life on Tap on October 9, exploring graphic design and animation. The event welcomed alumni Libby Peterson ‘18 and Andrew Ciskanik ‘12, who shared their insights and successes with the student body about working in animation and graphic design, respectively.
Libby Peterson has worked for Disney and Pixar and currently works as a film and game animator at Lucasfilm. Andrew Ciskanik is an associate experience designer at Booz Allen Hamilton in Northern Virginia, where he works on branding, video, and animation production, as well as user interface and experience design.
Although graphic design and animation have many overlapping skills, they each require differing technical skills. Peterson and Ciskanik both emphasized the importance of leaning into one’s natural interests and talents while also trying new techniques and exploring various skill sets. Being willing to try new things and fail is a strength in the world of design and animation, since much of the work is explorative, especially when one is first starting out.
To get into their respective industries, Ciskanik enjoyed drawing from a very early age, then transferred those skills and techniques to digital art and design in high school and college. He was also involved in his family’s printing business and interned with the Marketing Office while a student at Christendom. Peterson noted that she utilized many free courses and tools online to complete projects for her portfolio, in addition to completing projects for friends, SAC events, and clubs at Christendom. She obtained a highly competitive internship at Pixar by having a varied and polished portfolio and vigorously applying to internships.
Both alumni stressed the importance of working on completing projects and building a portfolio. Peterson suggested getting involved with SAC, events, and offering to help friends with various projects. Ciskanik observed that every business, website, or event needs some sort of design and Christendom offers many professional opportunities to its students through positions in Marketing, Advancement, and Donor Relations to practice these concrete skills.
Christendom’s motto to “Restore all things in Christ” underscores society’s need for Catholics to be involved in every area of society, including entertainment and media. Peterson stated that while she does not work at a Catholic company, her faith and her values are reflected in her artwork. In this way, truth, goodness, and beauty can be shared in any workplace, and Catholics can become examples of Christian virtue through their life and work.
While Christendom does not offer a specific art or design major, the liberal arts education equips students with crucial communication skills, as well as providing them ample opportunity to hone their individual talents through the numerous opportunities of clubs, on-campus jobs, and extracurricular programs. Ultimately, the Christendom liberal arts curriculum, far from limiting its graduates in their future careers, opens the door to a world of possibilities in every major field. Through the study of the Catholic liberal arts, Christendom’s students encounter a universal study of knowledge — through mathematics, history, literature, classics, and political science — unified by the central role of philosophy and theology.
The Life on Tap series connects successful alumni in various fields with current students, demonstrating the paths that countless alumni have taken to succeed after graduating. The Career and Professional Development Office typically organizes three Life on Tap events every semester which are open to all students.
For more information on Christendom’s networking resources, as well as previous Life on Tap recordings, visit here.
