THE ONE AND ONLY ALAN RUAN
CURRENT POSITION: Process Engineer at Eli Lilly & Company
LOCATION: Indianapolis, Indiana
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN DEGREE: Bachelors in Chemical Engineering
GRADUATION YEAR: 2016
ACTIVITIES AT MICHIGAN: Michigan Pops Orchestra, Peer mentor for the Center for Engineering Diversity and Outreach, AIChE and OXE (chemical engineering professional societies)
MICHIGAN POPS ORCHESTRA INSTRUMENT: Cello
Listen to one of Alan's favorite Pops pieces while you read about his Pops Life!
A CONVERSATION WITH ALAN
KELLY COMPTON, our Pops Life correspondent, talks with Alan about his many adventures with his trusty cello and how the Pops Experience has helped him embrace music as part of his life today...
KC: Alan, tell me about some of your musical background before coming to Michigan
AR: I started playing the piano when I was in kindergarten, but I couldn’t quite get the left hand to work with the right hand so I switched to violin when I was in first grade. I played that for a couple years but it still didn’t really resonate with me. So in 6th grade my parents said, “Ok you get one more chance to pick an instrument.” I picked the cello, partly because Yo-Yo Ma played cello, and I fell in love with it. It felt really natural, and I was really able to express myself through it. I took private lessons all through high school and played in orchestra class every year.
KC: What drew you to the Michigan Pops Orchestra initially?
AR: Another Pops member, Andrew Campbell, graduated from the same high school as I did (he graduated two years earlier), and when he found out I was going to the University of Michigan, he told me to audition for the Michigan Pops Orchestra. It’s funny because we’re like the same person; we both graduated from Okemos High School, we both went to Michigan and studied Chemical Engineering, and we both played cello in the Pops orchestra. Anyways, Andrew's referral was how I knew of Pops.
KC: Tell me about your experience with the Pops and some of your favorite memories!
AR: Being a part of the Michigan Pops Orchestra was a wonderful experience through and through. I got to continue playing with a couple of people from my hometown of Okemos, Michigan, and I also met a bunch of really talented people from all over the country. The really great thing about Pops is that everyone is in the same boat as you; they are students who aren’t majoring in music but love it so much that they decide to continue playing in college.
Some of my favorite Pops memories include: playing at my first concert, Pops Takes Flight, which had a great line-up including “Jupiter” from the Planets Suite. That concert remains my favorite Pops concert, and it’s honestly my favorite concert of all time. Also, playing for cancer patients at Mott Children’s Hospital as an outreach activity was a really fulfilling experience. One of the kids actually came up to the stage and sang a song that one of my ensembles just played, a cover of “All about that Bass.” Another memory was organizing the 2016 Solo Concerto Competition as Outreach Director. It was a lot of work but was the most rewarding thing I did that year on the E-board. The winner of the competition was an amazing pianist from Skyline High School who played a powerful rendition of “Totentanz” by Liszt at the Spring concert.
Also, playing in a cello duet with a fellow Pops member and friend, Becca Lynch, was super fun. We played covers of current pop songs and created them by just listening to the songs on like YouTube and figuring them out. We called ourselves “MC Squared” (which stood for Michigan Cellos^2). We even did some street performing at the Ann Arbor Art Fair one year – we made like $100!
KC: What is your current job? How did you get there, and what made you want to go into that field?
AR: I work at Eli Lilly and Company, a pharmaceutical company based in Indianapolis, and I am a process engineer at one of their insulin manufacturing plants. That means I take care of equipment involved in making the insulin molecule and work on projects to improve the manufacturing process.
I always knew I wanted to work in something related to medicine and healthcare. I liked science and math, so I majored in Chemical Engineering and applied to pharmaceutical companies my senior year before graduation.
KC: How has your career, relationships, and general mindset been shaped by your experience with the Pops?
AR: My experience with Pops has led me to continue playing in a community orchestra here in Indianapolis. After graduation and moving to Indy, I had a longing for music and joined the Philharmonic of Indianapolis. We practice Monday nights and have concerts every 2 months. Like the Pops, we also play a mix of music spanning classical, movie, and contemporary. One of the big differences is that there are people of all different ages there - I’m one of the youngest members. It’s cool to be able to meet people from all over the area that do all sorts of different things for their day jobs. In that sense, Pops has shaped my general mindset by helping me realize that I always want to be involved in music; and it has shaped my relationships by helping me connect with other people that played in college. In terms of my career, maybe not so much, but it does help in the same way it helped in college: as a way to forget about the stresses of work and just enjoy playing music.
KC: What advice would you give to current orchestra members interested in pursuing a similar career?
AR: If you want to work in the medical/healthcare industry, it is a great choice. You get the feeling of really helping people and contributing to society. I chose to work in a pharmaceutical company, which makes life-saving medicines that I can feel proud of. To be an engineer in pharma, you have to do chemical, mechanical, or electrical engineering and have a serious interest in pharmaceuticals. Biomedical engineering at Michigan is still not that favored, as its curriculum tends to be more geared toward medical devices, not making medicine itself. I speak from experience as someone who was on the Michigan recruiting team for Lilly this past career fair.
KC: What does the Pops mean to you personally?
AR: Pops is a community of some of the friendliest, coolest people I’ve ever met. It was amazing being part of it in college, and I can’t really imagine my experience at Michigan without it. I loved it, my family loved it, and my friends loved it. Sometimes I’ll hear a song in a movie or on TV and be like, “Hey I played that in Pops!” The Pops experience is something I will remember forever.
ALAN'S FAVORITES
TV SHOW: Parks and Recreation
RESTAURANT IN A2 AND INDY: Ann Arbor - Mani Osteria. Indianapolis - The Eagle on Mass Ave
ROAD TRIP: When my family moved from California to Michigan. We decided to drive the whole way and we took the scenic route as well, hitting up as many national parks as possible.
MEAL: My favorite meal was probably the beef noodle soup at a little shop called "Eight Dragons" when I lived in L.A. The shop is closed now unfortunately but it was my favorite place to eat as a kid.
PLACE IN THE WORLD: The Grand Canyon...I just love the rock formations of the West! I remember as a kid trying to descend to the bottom of the basin, and a park ranger stopping me a while after because I had literally nothing with me, no water, no blankets, no food. Looking back that was probably a dumb move but hey, didn't know better at the time.
POPS PIECE: "Jupiter" from the Planets Suite
PERSON YOU WOULD HAVE DINNER WITH: If I could have dinner with anyone, I would probably pick Yo-Yo Ma. Because he was kinda my inspiration for choosing the cello, and it would just be fascinating to hear him talk about his life's journey.
3/1/18