It was a peculiar moment in the back of Seigle 301, right before class ended as the rustling of backpack zippers had just started to become annoying, when Professor Rob Morgan said “[remember], It’s all connected”. It was Professor Morgan’s thesis that our strange and seemingly unrelated double majors, passion projects, extra-curriculars, and side-hustles we had as Beyond Boundaries students had entered into our lives for a reason. We freshman, not unlike Netflix true crime docuseries interviewees, just had to figure out how to connect the dots so that our personal and professional goals could become more than resume bullet points and tell a personalized story of making meaning from unique interdisciplinary connections.

Oddly enough, my own story’s next chapters started to reveal themselves to me when Tyler Richards, founder and CEO of uFab, came and talked to our “Navigating the Startup Ecosystem” course (strangely, or not so strangely, just four doors down from Seigle 301). Tyler’s thesis, like Professor Morgan’s, was that he could connect his freelance circuit board design experience, electrical engineering degree, and startup business acumen to “revolutionize the way circuit boards are manufactured”. When I heard that I was immediately taken back to the hell that was trying to learn electrical engineering in high school on Zoom. But when Tyler explained his product and service (told his story): using a 2-axis laser system to make circuit boards faster and more environmentally friendly, I sat up. 

At the time, my background and practice as a textile artist and computer scientist (the previous chapters in my story) meant finding ways in which I could use my technology skills to create art that empowered others’ voices in a unique way using the emotionally connected medium of quilting. What I hadn’t realized is the possibility of that connection working in reverse. Tyler’s circuit board manufacturing system was just like the Cricut machine I worked on nearly everyday. However, instead of cutting fabric pieces like me and quilting them together to tell stories, Tyler was cutting copper-laminated fiberglass to make circuit boards that powered the stories of the entrepreneurs and hobbyists who’s hardware projects depended on it. 

Now, as uFab’s summer marketing and development intern, these parallels are no longer comparisons in my mind made in the back of a third floor Seigle classroom, but a knowledge base I have drawn on to make social media posts, shake hands at networking events, and make zoom calls with clients. In the beginning of the summer, my main objectives were to use my artistic background and technical knowledge to tell a story with new marketing graphics to attract clients who needed circuit boards. I made banners, posters, one-pagers, shirts, developed social media – all this content that was both visually interesting and communicative of the technology Tyler developed, and the story behind it. 

These materials were then tested at the biggest maker event of the summer – OpenSauce Live 2023 in San Francisco. Just like a giant science fair for serious makers, at OpenSauce Tyler and I told each other’s stories as we listened to those from attendees and used it as leverage to connect with our exact target audience – 4000 of them to be exact. To our surprise, we found ourselves surrounded by our two top competitors, PCBWay and JLCPCB across the row from us. However, it is my belief that Tyler and I’s connections to each other and every maker, creative, and hobbyist that walked by that we could listen to, set uFab apart. This approach was in many ways an MVP that tested the previous week’s lessons conducted by the Skandalaris Center “Communications and Telling Your Story” panel Sachi Agarwal and I hosted, and Jerry Rosen’s Networking crash course. 

By the end of OpenSauce, employing that model of listening to create connections led to meeting/seeing famous engineering celebrities like Adam Savage from MythBusters, Mark Rober, and more. But the best part was seeing our booth and the market validation of real-life makers come up and tell us their story and what they do and how uFab’s new technology is capable of helping them. From 3D printers that print in space, to giant Furbys, and a computer program that lets shrimp fry their own rice, we got to see not just stories in action but stories in connection with one another as we talked with makers all weekend.

However, my story with uFab and St. Louis didn’t stop there. With OpenSauce over, I focused more on upcoming software development plans, written proposals for large partnerships, and continued my art practice as a quilter. I carried with me for the rest of the summer Professor Morgan’s attitude of finding the connections amongst the stories of those who I come across. People like Michael Ross, an electrical engineer like Tyler turned quilt artist like me; Matt Bryan, a local artist who uses code to create patterns with pictures from around St. Louis; and even casually at the local City Sewing room making quilts with Anne, a former WashU biology researcher who bonded with me over quilting software issues. These stories and how I got to hear them are what I want stitched into my own next chapters, and are what will connect me beyond just uFab, the Skandalaris Center, WashU, or even St. Louis. 

As I leave this fellowship and this chapter comes to an end, it has become clear that this summer, and more specifically, this fellowship, was not an exercise in learning marketing, understanding electrical engineering, or even networking with valuable industry players. 

Instead, my summer has been like an art piece – it tells a compelling story and is connected to all who created it. And while I may never see all the little ways in which those connections may exist, evolve, or expand, at least I know, from lessons in the back of a third floor Seigle classroom, that they are not just there, but that they are everywhere. And that alone is pretty enough for me.