Another part that I deal with a lot [in teaching] is how to make the transition out of academic training into the professional industry. I always encourage students to aim high. I came out of apprentice-style training. I did my undergraduate training and although I got accepted to graduate school, I was getting work straight out of undergrad, working for top New York and London designers. That became my apprenticeship, assisting those designers for the first five years of my career, which was a private reading with each of those designers. If you look around at lighting designers working in the theatrical community, about half of us have apprentice-style training and about half have a graduate degree. And those are both valid ways to go. My great fortune, coming out of my undergraduate program, was falling into a top design circle in the United States, so it can happen.
– From the PLSN Interview with Dawn Chiang in the February issue of PLSN
