Charlotte Native Finds Her Creative Home at Queens University

For Charlotte native and incoming interior and architectural design major, Evelyn De Santiago-Duron ’28, art is the central way she expresses herself. In high school, she had the opportunity to showcase some of her artwork at area events hosted by the Mint Museum and the Charlotte Art League.

She began to experiment with other mediums such as watercolors, charcoal, and acrylics in her junior year. An assignment by her art teacher to capture the feeling of fears and phobias through artist expression led her to create a piece that would go on to be showcased by the Charlotte Art League. De Santiago-Duron typically works with pencil in her drawings. It was the combination of pencil and watercolor that brought such a dynamic rendering to her exhibited piece.

“I tried to express a fear of drowning in this piece. But not just drowning in water. Drowning in feelings.” She used her own experiences to channel her emotions to make sense of them and understands that trusting the process is what helped her create this powerful work.

De Santiago-Duron will bring that same philosophy of trusting the process to her studies at Queens. She knows what she needs to be successful in the classroom and what she needs from her peers and her teachers. “I need trust and I need everyone to be committed to the work,” she said.

When she visited Queens as a possible place to study, she saw both. Her visit coincided with Queens’ annual Marking Excellence event where students display their undergraduate research and creative pieces in a daylong celebration. Students and visitors are invited to walk through the galleries to speak directly with the presenters about their experiences, their findings or their work, and their future endeavors.

Faculty are on hand to support and engage the students. What De Santiago-Duron encountered that day ranged from wood-block prints that were created in upper-level art courses to qualitative research presented by a psychology student investigating the impact of wearables on student-athlete performances to a graphic design student’s involvement in the editing and design of short-feature, horror film screened in the Sandra Levine Theatre. Seeing the ways that Queens supported its students’ research and creative endeavors excited De Santiago-Duron to apply.

As a first-generation college student and the oldest of four siblings, she understands that her time at Queens encourages others in her family to pursue a degree in higher education. Being from the Charlotte area, she knew that Queens could offer her the college experience but seeing it in action helped her envision her own college experience at Queens. She expects that the intimate learning environment and the small classes will help her balance both home and college life.

By Jennifer Daniel, Ph.D.