We were lucky to catch up with Ania Wilson recently and have shared our conversation below.
Ania, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?
My work ethic stems from my personal values, diverse experiences, and passion for what I do. Growing up, I witnessed the hard-working attitude both my parents had, and they instilled the same resilience in myself and my siblings. Creating that foundation has been essential in striving for excellence.
As a double minority in STEM, I’ve also learned to navigate and overcome challenges that might arise due to biases or misconceptions. This fostered a strong desire to excel in my field; as I am always motivated to push boundaries, knowing that my success can help pave the way for others who may face similar challenges.
I wholeheartedly believe in the power of innovation to make a positive impact. I’m always seeking knowledge, trying to develop new skills, work on new passion projects, and ultimately become a better version of myself.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I love to say that you can find me at the crossroads of engineering and design. I would describe myself as a creative thinker who is passionate about telling a story and making things come to life. Products, designs, brands, you name it. At a young age, I came to the realization that I did pretty well in school. I was always an honor-roll student, and I would gravitate towards software in the Microsoft Office tool suite and learn the ins and outs better than my parents. I loved to draw, write stories, poems, read..but when it came time to choose a major for college I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. I knew that I was capable of studying engineering, but I had always had a love for art and design.
I ultimately decided to study computer engineering, and switched to Industrial Engineering adding a minor in Computer Science because I felt the CompE curriculum was more “Electrical Engineering” heavy than I liked. Despite going the engineering route, I didn’t give up on my passion for art and design. I started joining organizations and designing flyers as the “Public Relations chair”, which ultimately led to me starting my own business, Double A Designs.
My personal projects not only include a digital design background, but I am the brain child behind an app that won a mobile app competition at my university and we are still pursuing its development today.
Within the corporate realm, I improve processes with the implementation of innovative dashboards and interactive reporting tools that I design and sometimes build.
Overall, I love all things technology, and design and I am fortunate that I can blend my passions on a day to day basis.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Whew! This is a good one. The three things that have kept my grounded and still do to this day are resilience, faith, and motivation. Remaining resilient means that I may not succeed every time, but what I’ll never do is give up. Everyone knows that STEM can be strenuous, but knowing what I’m capable of will always pull me through! Faith is what allows me to remain sound each day, I’m a firm believer and know that I wouldn’t be where I am today without God for sure. Finally, motivation is what keeps me moving forward. It’s important to note that this part isn’t always done alone..my friends, family, loved ones have always supported me and been accountability partners when needed.
That’s one of my biggest pieces of advice..acknowledging that you don’t have to do it alone. Keep good people in your circle!
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
Ummm, absolutely!?!! As someone whose gears never stop churning I have so many creative ideas. I would love to connect and collaborate with other talented individuals and leverage more unique perspectives!
If you are a website designer, front-end developer, app designer, product designer, or anything within the realm I would love to collaborate. I can be reached at anialexisdesigns@gmail.com.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: anialexisdesigns
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ania-wilson
Image Credits
My personal photo thumbnail was taken by @guyxphoto
