Hi! My name is Lily Dykstra. I am a junior at the University of Colorado Boulder. I major in Creative Technology and Design in the School of Engineering with a minor in Mathematics.
Personal:
A little bit about me! One of my favorite things to do is create. I have been sewing for the past 4 years. I will sew clothes, bags, trinkets, and any pattern I can get my hands on. My main goal is to be as sustainble as possible. My favorite thing to make are patchwork bags. I use denim scraps from old jeans and patch them together in random or intentional designs.
Another favorite thing of mine is swimming! I grew up near the beach in Los Angeles and to this day will go in the water everytime I return, even if it is a polar plunge. I also grew up as a competitive swimmer so even though I have retired from the cometitive side, I am on the club swim team at CU Boulder for fun.
I also love traveling! I am extremely lucky to have grown up in a family that values seeing the world and getting experiences. Most recently, my family and I went to Argentina to visit Buenos Aires and Tierra del Fuego National Park, and Columbia to visit Bogota. I have also had the opportunity to study abroad multiple times. I graduated high school a year early, so I decided to travel and study abroad. During this time I studied Spanish Language and Culture in Seville, Spain; LGTBQ+ Youth and Activism in Amsterdam, Netherlands; and the summer after my freshman year of college I studied Spanish Language and Mayan Culture in Merida, Mexico.
Lastly, I am spending the fall of my junior studying abroad in Florence, Italy. I am getting the opportunity to study topics unique to Florence and Italy in general, such as renaissance art and the history and science behind it. I am also taking this opportunity to travel as much as possible. So far, I have been to Athens and Aegina in Greece; Dubrovnik, Croatia; Prague, Czech Republic; Vienna and Salzburg, Austria; Budapest, Hungary; and plenty of places within Italy such as Milan, Venice, Bologna, Como, Pisa, Cinque Terre, Rome, Naples, Pompei, Vesuvius, Herculaneum. I feel so extremely lucky to be having an opportunity to be studying such amazing topics in such a beautiful city while having the time and means to travel.
Professional:
Within my time at CU Boulder I have had the opportunity to study a variety of topics such as: web design, graphic design, photography, circuitry, prototyping, principles of design, and much more. Within these opportunities I have learned on programs such as: Adobe Creative Cloud, Figma, programming languages (Python, HTML, CSS, JS), CAD Modeling (Rhino, SketchUp, Fusion360)
I have quite a bit of expereince in many leadership centered roles. Every summer I am a volunteer sleep away camp counselor at my childhood camp for one week. During this time I lead 10 girls, ages ranging from eight to fourteen depending on the year, through their day. I take them to meals, lead activities, and also become their emotional support. Additionally, I have worked many times as a swim instructor. This role has taught me many different methods of teaching from following a strict curriculum, to making it up as we go to tailor it to the childrens current needs and abilities. Lastly, I have been a Learning Assistant with the Atlas Institute at CU Boulder assisting with the Image class. I would help students with the basics of Adobe Creative Cloud platforms, such as Photoshop and Lightroom, and HTML during our AR/VR unit. Lastly, I spent the past summer as an intern with Calypso AI working with the platform Amplitude to provide specialized dashboard to different departments.
I am currently working as a prototype designer for tech start-ups Gfiex and CIRGO in which I am also a co-founder. In these role I use programs such as Fusion360 and Blender to provide product models.