Bachelor of Urban Planning and Development, 2000

Current Employer: College of Architecture & Planning Indianapolis Center; Indianapolis Regional Center Plan 2020

Brad Beaubien is a consultant for the Indianapolis Department of Metropolitan Development's Regional Center Plan 2020, which will chart future downtown development in Indiana's capital city. He facilitates the citizen committees that are formulating the plan, gathers community input, and maintains a storefront office and Web site for the project.

He also is helping other organizations develop Web sites for community input, including the Indianapolis Cultural Districts Program, and he serves as communications specialist for Ball State University's CAP Indianapolis Center (CAP:IC).

Brad began working on the Indianapolis Regional Center Plan 2020 as a graduate assistant in the M.U.R.P. short-track program. "It's a major downtown plan for a major city," he says. "I thought that would be good experience."

Ball State's graduate assistantships and Indianapolis activities attracted him to pursue a master's degree at the same school where he had earned his baccalaureate in planning.

"The big draw for me was the Indianapolis urban experience," he explains. "I wanted to work in a big city. There's more going on, more arts and culture, and there are more pressing social issues that need attention. Large cities offer more opportunities."

He had enjoyed his undergraduate studies, which included an internship with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Office of Economic Development and Empowerment Services in Washington, D.C. He says he also appreciated the personal attention at Ball State.

"The College of Architecture and Planning is a really neat environment," he says. "There's a lot of camaraderie. You spend a lot of time together. We were on a first-name basis with most of our professors."

He also praises the college's community projects, which provide real-life experience and interaction with people. "You do real projects for real people--it's not just hypothetical."

Brad likes the planning profession because it offers diverse opportunities and merges his interests in political science and design.

"There are so many different avenues you can take," he says. "There's economic development, community development, zoning and law, private development, social service planning, and environmental planning. A new thing with 9/11 is emergency planning. I don't think you could get bored easily."

Learn more about Ball State's urban planning degree programs.