The University of Oklahoma • Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Comunication
Graduate Student Stories
DESIGN WITH A SMILE : Graduate student Yeli Scott takes time from her studies to express her creativity by aiding the college with special design projects ranging from Web pages to the graduate programs brochure. Photo by Billy AdamsDesigning her destiny
Student overcomes challenges with enthusiasm
Venezuela-born Yeli Scott began to learn English through “Sesame Street”and “I Don’t Wanna Cry” at 16 when her family moved to the land of Big Bird and Mariah Carey to provide her a better future.
Scott, now a master’s student focused on graphic design, said her family’s new life began with some challenges.
“We didn’t even have beds,” Scott said.
After finishing high school in Florida and improving her English, Scott decided to study theater at the University of Miami.
A ballet dancer since the age of 3, Scott also took dance classes. She had just signed with a dance company in Venezuela when her family made the move.
Husband Steve Scott says she appeared frequently on television when they started dating and often served as a back-up dancer for entertainers in Miami.
She earned her first lead role in a play early on. She knew, however, that her way of speaking would limit her ability to succeed on stage or screen.
“My accent,” she says with a sigh. “Now I have it, but back then it was even worse. They set me up with a phonetics professor.”
Scott credits her father, a graphic designer in advertising, with guiding her to major in graphic design and film production.
“I always had his art around me,” Scott says.
After graduating in 2003, Scott started her own design company, working with clients ranging from Miami’s Regency Hotel to Angel’s Rent-A-Car.
When the Scotts moved to Tulsa so Steve could pursue an internship, Scott worked as a freelance graphic designer while employed as a production assistant at a local television station.
When her husband’s career moved them to Norman, Scott decided to continue her education.
Her graphic design focus has led to several assignments from Associate Dean Meta G. Carstarphen.
Scott designed the logo and promotional materials for Carstarphen’s spring Race, Gender and the Media Dream Course, one of five President David L. Boren funded that semester.
These courses bring a variety of well-known individuals in some acacemic area to campus to talk to students and the OU community.
“Yeli created an image that said in one glance what the course was about, and that’s a high compliment for a graphic element,” Carstarphen says. “She understood that the materials had not only to look good but to communicate the main ideas of the course. She made that happen.”
Scott also has designed and launched the Web site for Communicating Culture: Travel Writing in Puerto Rico, a course Carstarphen team teaches with Kathryn Jenson White, assistant professor of journalism.
“Our students’ work needed a showcase, and Yeli created a series of Webzines we could use for that,” Jenson White says. “Her design shows off our student’s research, writing and photography perfectly. Her concept and execution were both just right for our needs.”
Associate professor of journalism David Craig, director of graduate studies, has asked Scott to work on promotioinal materials for the graduate program.
Craig says she was thoughtful in her comments in his editing class, which has a design component, and highly motivated.
“She has a really good eye for design and a good sense of visuals,” Craig says. “I appreciate her positive attitude and enthusiasm.”
Although Scott is not sure what her future will bring, she said she would like to work for an ad agency.
“Do what you love and what you are good at; that is my philosophy,” Scott says.
After living and going to school in the United States for eight years, Scott became a U.S. citizen in January 2006.
