"I never knew something like a poster would draw me to such a great college,”

said Natasha Nayo ’15 (Animation B.F.A., Illustration Concentration), who was curious about the College after seeing a poster at her school with information on MICA’s programs.

In another clear sign of destiny, her art teacher in form three—the Ghanaian equivalent to ninth grade in the United States—was MICA alumna Mansa Nkrumah ’96 (Visual Communication Design). Nkrumah explained to Nayo that going to school at MICA would be a lot of work, but absolutely worth it. After researching other schools and their animation programs, Nayo knew MICA was the school for her.

“It took me many months until I traveled to see MICA face-to-face and realized I really made it,” Nayo said. She also said she found inspiration in everyone at the College—her teachers and the students— who each have unique talents.

I met some artists who, like me, are really good at what they want to do, and others who discover they’re good at something else. Sometimes, it’s you who inspires them; it really is a great community of talents.”

Nayo is currently an animator based in Baltimore, where she is working at Storyfarm on educational videos about gun control. Before then she created e-book videos for children learning linguistics in the SmartCoos app program; the work there included creative educational videos for children learning languages that range from French to Mandarin.