New Friendships and a New Career

Two weeks before the deadline to submit her master’s thesis project, Anddie Chan-Patera, MIA’18 opened her laptop to a black screen. Panicked, she set up camp in the BAC’s thesis room and began re-building her project from scratch while her classmates supported her.

“That was a very important learning moment for me,” Anddie said. “At that very desperate time I found support and friendship and many of these students are now my close friends–we meet regularly, even throughout the pandemic.”

Anddie came to the United States from Hong Kong in the early 1980s for college and earned her business degree from UMass Boston. As a student, Anddie played an important role in the founding of the Asian Center and the first academic program in Asian-American studies at the University. These initiatives are still thriving today—as is Anddie’s advocacy for minorities and women.

Anddie’s career progressed from banking to academic administration. In the latter, at MIT, Anddie focused on industry relations and international collaborations as one of three founding directors of the Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA), a large research and education collaboration between three universities and numerous research organizations.

Anddie retired from MIT in the early 2000s and devoted the next fifteen years to her two sons, Hugo and Fernando, and to a growing passion for art—first pastels and then porcelain painting—and eventually interior design. In 2017, Anddie enrolled in the Master of Interior Architecture (MIA) program at the BAC.

Anddie believes the BAC plays a very special role in the design education world. “I went back to school in my 50s, so it wasn’t easy. But the premise of the BAC is to give anybody who is interested and dedicated to design and architecture a chance to start a career. The BAC also has a wonderful Practice program providing students hands on exposure to the design industry and a welcome source of income. In my case, I had a very fruitful working experience at DRA Architects.”

Upon completion of her degree in May 2018, Anddie started a professional partnership with Angela Zhang, BIA’18. Connections with and through the broader BAC community played an important role in the early days. Angela and Anddie’s first major client, Jonathan Garland B.Arch’09, gave the pair their first opportunity in large-scale projects as well as the experience and encouragement to launch their interior design firm, A Square Design. The firm focuses on large multi-family residences and provides interior design services for residential, hospitality, and commercial spaces.

But access, exposure, and opportunity cannot succeed without equal commitment to support. “In my early days at BAC, I struggled to master the industry-standard software. My faculty and advisors were a constant source of advice and guidance and the College’s tutor programs. I still fondly remember my early morning Revit tutoring sessions with Darguin Fortuna, B.Arch’16.”

Anddie believes so much in the BAC mission and approach that she recommended the College to her younger son, Fernando. Fernando found in the BAC the opportunity and passion he was not able to find in more standard college options. She shared, “we have so much to talk about that sometimes we can’t stop talking because he’s so passionate about his studies and gets great support from his faculty and fellow classmates.” Fernando is now in his last year of the BAC’s Bachelor of Landscape Architecture program.

Anddie remains committed to the BAC and involved at many different levels. She is a member of the Alumni Advisory Council, a donor to the Scholarship and Support Fund, an adjunct faculty for the Interior Design program, and a thesis advisor to a recent BAC graduate, Becky Chen.

“To me, the BAC is about access, opportunity, and empowerment—combining to create a supportive educational and professional community. A gift to the BAC is an investment in students and an investment in our society—building a better-designed and more inclusive world.”