BIOGRAPHY
My name is Maya, and I am an eighteen year-old senior studying design at Freestyle Academy of Communication Arts & Technology. I will be attending New York University in the fall, where I will be pursing Media, Culture & Communication. Throughout my life, I have always found it easiest and most freeing to express myself creatively. Music is my foremost passion, and I have been singing, writing songs, and performing them for over ten years now. It comes naturally to me, and has become the primary way for me to use my voice. I have released several songs since early 2017 but am excited to currently be working on my debut, self-titled album. I hope to one day live in Nashville, TN to pursue my songwriting career and find collaborators who are dedicated to making similar music to me. Hey, and if all goes as planned, you might just see me on the Grand Ole Opry in a few years (what can I say, dream big, kids)!
Aside from music, my other passion is visual communication, and I hope to one day have a career in digital marketing. In my free time you can find me designing memorabilia for friends, creating magazines and mood boards, or assembling engaging content on social media. I started (and run) a social media page with over 25K followers and love working on it in my free time to enhance visual engagement, create interactive stories, and more. Through it, I have had the chance to engage with several influencers, and have messaged back and forth with some pretty iconic people who follow my page, if I do say so myself (Miley Cyrus! #fangirl). In general, it absolutely thrills me to see people find creative outlets that bring them joy. I feel so beyond privileged to be in an environment that nurtures this for my junior and senior year.
I found many of my interests here at Freestyle through being able to experiment with programs such as Adobe Illustrator, ProTools and of course, good ol’ InDesign. However, I have so much more to learn and a plethora of connections to make. And I am so so excited to collaborate with others who share my passion! I value hard work, honesty, and creativity, and am eager to apply every new skill I learn to something I enjoy and can get to know myself better with. My favorite subject is English, especially creative writing, and I adore recording podcast episodes and YouTube videos in my free time. I’m the kind of person that wants to talk about everything I learn for hours (I’ve been told it’s annoying, but nonetheless!). I just love to socialize with new people and tell them about myself, as well as hear their stories. I also try a lot of new things, and have participated in a number of extracurriculars and activities over the years, including dance, drama, photography, and more. I will admit, I have not been named the most athletic of humans, but I do really love going on long runs in my free time (marathon here I come?… yeah, no) My favorite thing to do is listen to music (surprise, surprise) because I connect with it deeply on so many levels.
I joined Freestyle so I could share my passion for project based learning with others, and in my time here so far have grown both creatively and individually in far more ways than I could have imagined. It’s crazy to look back on how much I didn’t know about myself before starting junior year. Freestyle has helped me gain so many of the tools I need to make my dreams a reality. Long story short, I love being a Freestyle student! It is truly the opportunity of a lifetime and definitely some of the most useful and fun education I’ve ever received. Well, that’s it from me, now go and check out my page!