Carly S. (IN A NUTSHELL)

Carly is a native of Fort Lauderdale, Florida and recent graduate of Northwestern University where she majored in journalism and sociology with a concentration in social data research. At Northwestern, she held leadership positions at Camp Kesem, an organization that supports children who are affected by a parent’s cancer, and the Daily Northwestern, where she served as design editor, as well as working as a reporter and sports photographer. Some of her main academic interests include socioeconomic inequality research and data visualization. 

Art and design have been lifelong passions of Carly’s, leading her to pursue creative ventures throughout high school and college. She started her artistic pursuits with drawing and painting and eventually transitioned to focus more on digital art. This led her to explore the fields of graphic design, digital illustration and photography in college and find ways to incorporate these skills into her personal academic interests. Carly has worked as an apparel designer for almost four years, creating designs for various organizations and some of the NCAA’s top athletes. She also worked as a graphic designer for Northwestern Athletics and the performing arts center. Although most of her recent work has been digital, she still loves to create art IRL, especially if it involves a laser cutter.

Carly is the type of person who tends to have a wide range of interests rather than gravitating toward one specific area. She is a huge sports fan (especially of basketball and football) and has consequently developed an extensive register of random sports facts. Music is another main interest of Carly’s; she plays guitar (badly), but she mostly likes to spend time discovering new music, learning about music history and making playlists for her friends. She also absolutely loves to cook unnecessarily elaborate dinners for her friends and family, especially if they involve pasta.

She believes creativity can be applied to any discipline and is excited to bring her passion for innovation and expressiveness to the Curious Cardinals community. Carly’s mission as a mentor is to help her students discover their strengths in whatever they choose to learn by finding ways to use their creativity to go beyond their perceived limits. She aims to foster a comfortable, friendly environment where questions and exploration are always encouraged.