Carrick Reddin, Washington University – St. Louis

Carrick Reddin, a junior at Washington University in St. Louis, is passionate about empowerment through community-based design and architecture. Through internships with a local community development nonprofit, Beyond Housing, and a St. Louis alderman, he has witnessed firsthand the challenges and benefits of community development work. He translates these experiences into his position as a project manager for the South Jefferson Collaborative, where he has written a grant for a neighborhood revitalization project and developed a curriculum for university students to engage in community-based work. Eager to understand the role of design on an international scale, Carrick traveled to Medellín, Colombia to participate in the United Nations World Urban Forum, where he contributed to the Youth Medellín Declaration. He carries his passion for design and civic engagement to his university, where he recently served on a team tasked with designing a new Center for Diversity and Inclusion on campus. He also serves on the architecture curriculum committee and works with faculty to integrate civic ideals into the existing curriculum. Carrick is committed to a career in public service and plans to use collaborative design practices to engage with communities around the world.
-Mark Wrighton, Chancellor

I have realized the most valuable assets of a civic leader are the self-awareness, compassion and humility necessary to connect and build trust with all people. Through projects like the South Jefferson Collaborative and Beckett Park Revitalization, I met with leaders from public and private sectors, and engaged in community collaboration, where I translated disparate ideas into a collective approach. In my engagements on campus, I serve as a nexus between students, faculty and administration- working between these spaces to create inclusive, lasting change. To me, leadership is working as a translator, not between English and Spanish, but between the languages of the activist and the politician, the community and the corporation, the developer and the designer.
Through the Ervin and Civic Scholars Programs, I have become passionate about a life in civic engagement. Through listening to diverse lived experiences of my peers, I learned the importance of listening and understanding over being heard and understood. I developed a craving for these types of conversations: ones in which our intersecting stories were examined in the context of existing structure, often with the intention of creating inclusive systems that provide solutions. Translated into a career, my passion is in public service.
-Carrick Reddin