Bridgit Mendler’s ascent to practically mogul status wasn’t exactly by the book. While a traditional space and tech executive might have taken an engineering or computer science major, Mendler opted for anthropology, which, according to her, was completely unintentional. In an interview on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” the former actor said the college application process confused her, leading to a happy little “accident” that landed her in anthropology. “I think I didn’t really understand how it worked,” she divulged. “I put down like five different things that I would potentially want to be in as a major, and I got my acceptance letter, and it’s like, ‘You’re in anthropology.'”
Fortunately, it ended up working in her favor, allowing her to dabble in subjects she otherwise wouldn’t have thought of exploring. “It’s just been a really nice little educational stew,” she told Vice, adding that she particularly enjoyed medieval history and architecture, which she thought was “interesting” and “changes the objective of a building.”
This focused interest in creating is perhaps what led Mendler to innovate. In a post for the MIT Center for Constructive Communication, she revealed that she joined MIT Media Lab to make sense of the deluge of information circulating online, leading her to develop a tool that yields “robust patterns” from online chatter. It’s well aligned with her transition into the space sector and precursor to something bigger and better. As she shared with CNBC, her startup aims to make “sending data to and from space” easier. Talk about a cosmic glow-up!
