Braylan Carroll ’09 came to Oxy with two seemingly incongruous interests: Jazz and economics. “Growing up, I was always surrounded by music,” says Carroll, of North Little Rock, Ark. “It’s probably the art form I’m most passionate about.” He started playing clarinet in the eighth grade, but decided to take up drums after hearing jazz greats Buddy Rich, Dennis Chambers and Dave Weckl. Carroll played snare drum in his high school’s marching band and kept up with the clarinet in the concert band, and joined the Occidental Jazz Band as a freshman.

But Carroll has always had a passion for numbers as well. His experiences at Oxy over the last two years have helped him streamline a plan to combine his two loves: Major in economics with a goal of working on the business side of the entertainment industry.

Although he no longer has time to play with the Oxy jazz band, Carroll takes advantage of the College’s Los Angeles location to frequent jazz clubs like the Baked Potato and Catalina Bar & Grill. “I’m still really attached to the music scene, just not playing a lot myself this semester,” Carroll said. His spare time is now taken up by the Charles R. Blyth Fund, a student-led investment group charged with managing $150,000 of the college’s endowment, and an internship in the business operations department at Yahoo. At this point, “music is more of a hobby than a professional goal.”

Carroll calls the Blyth Fund “one of the greatest things I’ve done at Oxy.” Researching individual companies “motivates you to do independent learning.”

Next semester the junior is heading off to the Catholic University of Sao Paulo in Brazil. He chose the study-abroad program because it has an economics emphasis and “Brazil has the largest economy in South America.” Plus he plans to learn Portuguese. Of course, his choice might also have a little to do with something called the samba.