Nicole Gawor sits in the library one night, flipping through her notebook. One page is filled with equations and well-organized lecture notes, the other showcases shaded graphite sketches of the human face.

As an engineering student, it is rare to find someone so equally talented with both the left and right side of their brain.

Gawor explained that she became interested in art her senior year of high school in an AP art class where she was able to work with all kinds of mediums, including charcoal, graphite, drawing, photography and Photoshop.

“My parents made me take art classes ever since I was little,” she said. “But it was when I started focusing on charcoal and graphite drawings that I fell in love with art.”

One might think it’s strange that she gravitates toward a hobby that is so dissimilar from her daily workload or why she did not choose art as a part of her curriculum.

Gawor believes that the two interests actually help each other in a lot of ways. Being partially left brained, her great analytical skills and attention to detail, has helped her with art, because she is able to free hand proportions more acutely. She points to the sketches in her notebook. It is clear that she can capture even minor details such as light and shade accurately with her constant exposure to analytical and critical thinking. The same goes for her schoolwork, “being right brained helps me visualize hard to grasp concepts that I encounter in my engineering classes,” Gawor said.

Her older sister, Leksi Sterritt, an SMU alum, also believes that the two interests, although very different, compliment each other. She thinks it’s great that she has a creative outlet that is so different from her major.

“It helps her to think more clearly with her studies when she has an escape every so often,” she said. “Especially when she’s dealing with numbers all day.”