Jorge Alberto Vega Rivera sits down with host Adam Fromme in this episode of the Thinking through Design podcast. 

“Design has a commitment to humanity. Even while design works with engineering…science…media…in the end it is about being human.” Jorge Alberto Vega Rivera

In this Student Spotlight episode, MFA student Jorge Alberto Vega Rivera reflects on his journey from the University of Cauca in Colombia to Ohio State as a Fulbright scholar. We explore how his background as a design professor and animation practitioner shaped his research in Digital Animation and Interactive Media. Alberto discusses creating an immersive VR thesis project that transforms family memories and oral histories into interactive digital environments, blending ethnographic research, storytelling, motion capture and virtual reality design. We trace how he collected and compared family recollections, translated them across multiple media formats, and ultimately developed a framework for designing what he calls “immersive mementos.” 

During our conversation, he shares insights about returning to the classroom as a student after more than a decade of teaching, collaborating with younger classmates, and balancing technical experimentation with deeply personal storytelling. And we conclude with a thoughtful reflection on design’s broader responsibility to not simply to create new technologies, but to help people remain connected to what makes them human.

This episode is part of the Student Spotlight mini-series. During the summer, we sit down with students at Ohio State DESIGN, giving them a chance to share their experiences and talk about the ideas that inspire them.

You can also listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts.