Arts & Ideas Summer Intensive Capstone Presentation

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Skylar Takacs is an 11th grader at New Haven Academy. She was born in Vermont and has lived in New Haven for 13 years. She is a creative, an artist, and an entrepreneur. Skylar participates in many school clubs and extracurricular programs, such as the Yale Evolutions program and her school’s Outdoors Club. During the pandemic in 2020, she volunteered with the Semilla Collective to help distribute food to families in need and sewed masks for her community and Yale New Haven Hospital. She recently graduated from the Arts and Ideas Fellowship class of 2021, where she completed a capstone project focusing on disparities in extracurricular accessibility. For this project, Skylar sent out a survey to New Haven Public School students to get input about students’ access to extracurricular programs in relation to race, income, and school attended. Next, she created a website that lists and categorizes free extracurricular opportunities for New Haven Public School students, with the goal to provide an outlet for learning and fostering interests, as well as to build community to benefit students’ mental and social well being. She is currently a student in the Arts and Ideas Summer Intensive, where she is learning about filmmaking and coding. Through District Arts and Education, she is taking an entrepreneurship class with Collab. Through this program, her goal is to create and teach free cooking classes for people who want to transition to vegetarian or vegan diets, yet face obstacles. A vegetarian for the last eight years, Skylar hopes to help people adopt vegetarian or vegan diets that are both healthy and affordable. In the process, she hopes to share her love of cooking. Her artistic skills include drawing, painting, and crafting. Skylar’s other hobbies include juggling, hand balancing, and spending time in nature. 

Cierra Davis was born on September 23rd in Bridgeport and currently resides in Woodbridge, CT.  They go to  Amity High School as a Junior. Cierra enjoys being busy while taking part in activities like roller skating, singing, and editing.  They strive to be better with technology and learn as much as they can about editing and entertainment filming. Cierra’s motivation is music and family, while being specifically inspired by their little sister,  Taylor. Cierra chooses to learn how to create so they can be well rounded for the future.  They chose to do this style film because they love mystery and horror shows. Cierra hopes to become a YouTuber, while bettering their filming and editing skills.

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Millie Sunshine Carlson was born in Portland, Maine, raised in Derby, CT, and now lives in New Haven, CT. They have been acting and performing, both on stage and on screen, for over 6 years. Her credits include musicals such as “Legally Blonde”, “All Shook Up”, “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying”, “James and the Giant Peach”, and “Sister Act”. They have also participated in the 48 Hour Film Festival, submitting movies such as “The Longest Chord” and ``It's Always About the Cat”. She is currently entering her senior year at Wilbur Cross High school and is a part of the Lights Up Drama Club there. Millie has been nominated for the High School Halo Awards for “Best Actress in a Musical” for playing the role of Hedy LaRue in How to Succeed in “Business Without Really Trying”. They are currently studying theatre at the Education Center for the Arts. She has studied singing techniques such as “mix” and “bel canto” at the New Haven Academy of Performing Arts and Wagner Iovanna Studio Productions, and dance styles such as musical theater, jazz, ballet, and hip-hop at Broadway Dance and Dance Fits U. Millie is a kind-hearted, creative person that aspires to have a career involved in theatre while growing and learning more about the world of arts as a whole.

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