Student Spotlight: Ariana Chandarpal

Ariana Chandarpal is a second-year architecture major from Meriden, Connecticut. She has been a part of Community Engagement since last spring as a part of the Design and Research team, where she worked on architecture-related projects for partners. This fall will be her first semester as a part of the marketing team.

Ariana first got involved with Community Engagement after seeing a flier posted around campus. She got in touch with the Project Coordinator of Community Engagement, Mia Brum, who showed great examples of past work with local partners, and spoke highly about the team collaboration and the drive of team members individually. Ariana says, “it did not take much convincing to get me to join!”

Outside of her work at the Farmhouse on campus, Ariana loves to sketch. She told me, “I spend any spare second I have throughout the day sketching what I see - especially people, spaces, and chairs.” She is also pretty well traveled, visiting places like Guyana where her parents grew up, and the Dutch side of Saint Martin, an island operated by both Dutch and French governments. She listens to various types of music, but lately has been between a surf rock phase and chutney. Her favorite band is Shannon and the Clams, although she has yet to see them in concert. Some more fun facts about Ariana are that her favorite show is The Blacklist, her favorite childhood movie is Spykids, and she cannot roll her r’s no matter how hard she tries.

When asked what Community Engagement means to her, she responded, “Community Engagement to me means more than just fundraising or donating money - I see it as being able to dedicate your time to personally pitch in and help out those in the community to see that they receive help they truly need. Having students get involved on and off campus broadens their mindset by making their world a bit bigger and strengthening connections within communities.” She looks forward to contributing to projects outside of the Roger Williams campus, as well as engaging in all the different opportunities the school itself has to offer. “I have met amazing people through the fun events held here, and hope to meet many more!”

We are so excited to have Ariana on our team!