WCAAD Student Nicole Chen Earned Acceptance to Northwestern University

Congratulation on Nicole Chen and her admission to Northwestern University pursuing a Creative Technologies and Engineering major.

Additional college admission-- 

UC Berkeley

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When I first met Nicole Chen, I was surprised to see such a rumbustious 14-year-old student demonstrate such tenacity about her own future. She knew what she wanted and what it would take to get there. Being a neighbor of one of our distinguished alumni Jonas Ma class of 2022 and recent graduate of Columbia, she was inspired to leave her own mark within the academy and her own trajectory as well. I am very pleased to say she has as well as accumulating a noteworthy portfolio.

This maturity and ambition would carry her to great heights. Her delivery in conduct, projects, assignments and final portfolio was all a culmination of her hard work and perseverance.  I was quite surprised to see her take on various challenges, be responsible, and jump into areas too advance for her. Yet she always managed to push through and deliver exiting work, ideas, and conversations that elevated our class.

I normally graduate students from our life drawing class once they reach a level that is professional and refined, Nicole would reach that milestone very quickly motivating others and creating as sense of respect among her peers.

Nicole always had a full vision on how art can be integral with various STEAM related aspects. I see her projects are evident of this crossover with sophisticated work and correlation to our integrated reliance on technology. From inspirations of Nasa, future of design within human exploration and the betterment of humanity in general is what is so exciting in her portfolio.   

“People often ask me, what makes you an artist in the age of AI? Never in history, has artists so prevalently come into conflict with technological tools in the way we do now.” Nicole says, “But we have something AI doesn’t have—creativity. Having the ability to create is inherently our birthright as humans, and no amount of supervised machine learning or algorithm training can replicate organic creation. Artificial intelligence will inevitably accompany us into the rest of the 21st century, but it is up to us to define what AI means in our lives. Don’t let AI define what it means to be an artist, that is your job, not a computer’s. ”

Nicole was always interested in choosing projects that also taught her as well as teaching other possibilities of what they can do and aspire in their own work. I feel this is a gift she has left the others a true pioneer.

Nicole was named a 2025 YoungArts winner in the Design category, one of 800 students nationwide honored for artistic achievement. The Design category features portfolios in architecture, product, graphic and fashion design, and is one of 10 artistic disciplines recognized by YoungArts. Nicole receives a monetary prize in addition to mentor support and networking opportunities through YoungArts. She is a member of CUM LAUDE SOCIETY, The Smith College Book Award and was a swimmer is some of her many achievements.

In our graduation I chose this particular student to give a speech to the class because of her maturity, experience, and connection  she had with various seniors alumni and current and her link with all groups leaving her imprint. I am very happy to have worked with Nicole all 4 years and wish her a good journey and all her endeavors.

(By Omar Gallegos, WCAAD Vice Principal and Director of Education)