Truth be told, David Ngene, Jr. ’08 never intended to become a liberal arts student.
Upon enrolling at Northwestern in 2003, Ngene, a first-generation college student from Houston, set his sights on a degree in mechanical engineering. He envisioned engineering, with its focus on building and creating, as a fitting gateway into architecture – the professional pursuit that really intrigued him.
And it seemed a sound, logical path. He could learn the foundations of engineering and apply those lessons to constructing lived environments. Simple as that, right?
But then he encountered Dan Devening.
And Marlena Novak.
And Michael Rakowitz.
And suddenly, as if by the pull of the cosmos, Ngene was an art theory and practice major examining the ideas driving the creation of contemporary art.
“Where engineering was focused on function, I felt far more aligned with the thoughtfulness and creativity of art,” Ngene says.
Devening’s art theory and practice course centered on the principles of color theory and form – a decidedly non-engineering class recommended by an astute advisor who noted Ngene’s creative side. The course fascinated Ngene with its exploration of design’s interplay with individuals and consumers.
“That opened my eyes to a whole new world I wanted to immerse myself in,” says Ngene, who earned an athletics scholarship at Northwestern and played four seasons with the Wildcats football team.
In a subsequent experimental art course with Novak, Ngene investigated futuristic tools of artistic creation, a study that challenged Ngene to expand his creative horizons beyond traditional tools like canvas and clay. And with Rakowitz, the force behind the Enemy Kitchen project that used Iraqi food as a gateway to understand Iraqi culture, Ngene discovered the connective power of art to bind humans together.
Like dominos, Ngene says, one experience fell into another, helping him find his academic home, career possibilities, and, above all, a purpose.
“Becoming an art theory and practice major sent me on a much better path, a more fulfilling path toward being a creator, a thought provocateur, and to imagine new possibilities and instigate change,” he says. “As a liberal arts student, I was able to untap and unlock this creativity sitting in me.”
Today, Ngene is a senior innovator at Nike’s NXT Space Kitchen, an internal team comprised of engineers, scientists, designers, and other boundary-pushing souls at the Swoosh. A collective tasked to uproot convention, cook up new innovations, and chart Nike’s future, the Space Kitchen team is the force behind Nike’s React foam cushioning technology – the plush, yet responsive midsole foam found in some of the brand’s pinnacle running shoes – as well as Metcon, the sportswear giant’s premier cross-training shoe.
“We have the freedom to explore and apply creativity anywhere,” says Ngene, who joined Nike in 2013 before landing at the Space Kitchen three years ago.
Working alongside pros from various disciplines, Ngene leans heavily into the fundamentals of his Weinberg education. He fashions himself a “master generalist” who can talk broadly across subjects, pose the right questions, synthesize information, connect the dots, and assemble the right team to propel innovative projects.
“That ability to be in conversation and collaboration with other disciplines is the superpower I developed at Weinberg,” Ngene says.
And it is a superpower, he asserts. He touts intellectual cross-pollination mixed with the timeless power of creativity as central to the world’s future, especially as new technologies arise, the world becomes more interconnected, and unsolved mysteries remain. He believes the liberal arts mindset breeds compelling solutions and progress.
“Opportunity lives at that intersection of diverse thought and creativity,” Ngene says. “It’s multi-disciplinary people who have the power to be connectors and adapt to the ever-changing world, which is why it’s so important to embrace the slashes and resist being just one thing. That’s something beautiful I found as a liberal arts major at Northwestern.”
Even if he didn’t know he was looking for it.
In this “Weinberg in the World Podcast” episode below, David Ngene ’08 shares stories about changing majors at Northwestern, the Art Theory & Practice Major, his first job after graduating, heading back to school, working at Nike, the value of an Arts & Sciences Degree, and the experience and memory of being a student athlete.