Hello! My name is Maya, and I am a third year at the University of California, Davis. I am majoring in Design with an emphasis in Product Design, and am minoring in Human Rights and Sustainability. I have experience working as a Design Lead at the start-up Blind Love Letters, and am currently ideating a product for the BioDesign Challenge 2021.
My design process is deeply informed by my passion to advocate for and empathize with others. Of course, experience is experience, and I will take those design opportunities when I can; but my goal for the future is to utilize my design and people-oriented skillset to improve the lives of others, specifically in relation to environmental justice and women's rights.
I am currently looking for design internships for the Summer of 2021.
If you have similar interests, need a cool and reliable intern, or just want to connect, feel free to shoot me a message on LinkedIn or send me an email at myvargas@ucdavis.edu.
Check out my Resume.
My Values as a Designer and a Human
---------------------
Empathy
Though it is a bit of a broken record, empathy truly is the core of ethical design. It allows us designers to step inside the minds of the people we are designing for, giving us insight into their needs and what we can do improve their experiences with both the virtual and physical world.
Advocacy
As a Designer, I am in a place of privilege where I am able to use my medium as a way to advocate for others. Design lives at the intersection of people and how they experience the world, and designers have a unique role in improving that experience by bringing awareness to its flaws.
Resilience
Designers play a key role in building up the resilience of our world through the support that their design offers to others. Whether you are an architect, a web designer, a product designer and beyond, we have all have a social responsibility to create ethical solutions to the challenges of life.