Tyler Legacy High School senior Molly Egan poses with Texas Skills USA 2022 T-shirt, a design that was created by her as an entry for the national competition where she placed second in district.

Editor’s Note: This is one in a series of stories highlighting graduating high school seniors in Smith County.

With a creative mind and bringing her own twist to her graphic designs, Tyler Legacy High School student Molly Egan is the first Career & Technology Center student to become a Visual Design Specialist.

Egan is set to graduate high school with a certification that will assist in her future career path. She will pursue a marketing and advertising degree at the University of Arkansas.

Through inspiration from her mother whom she looks up to, Egan has always considered herself a creative individual.

“My mom is an interior designer. So she’s super creative and I’ve just always followed after her. And I’ve been creative forever. At first I wanted to be a teacher, so I was in that pathway and somehow I got switched into graphic design. I don’t even know how but I really liked it and I enjoyed it,” she said.

During her high school career, she has mastered Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator and Adobe InDesign which took numerous weeks to complete while also balancing her schoolwork and extracurricular activities, she said.

She has also designed a few shirts, two for the Health Science department and a Tyler Rose Aquatic Club Summer Swim League shirt which is being produced now for the Aquatic Center.

Besides helping other organizations with her graphic design talent, Egan has also competed at Texas Skills USA 2022, a national competition, where she designed a shirt that placed second in district and led her to qualify for state.

Through finding her way into a public school atmosphere after being homeschooled and being in private school, Egan is thankful for Tyler ISD’s Career & Technology Center, especially for allowing her to find the creative outlet of graphic design.

“At CTC I definitely learned how to be more creative and put that into a source. I’ve learned all the Adobe products, and I didn’t really know anything about that before. I used to just draw or do something like that. This is a new outlet for me to express myself,” she said.

Egan is involved in the Career & Technology Center leadership program where she advises younger students to pursue pathways to express their creative side such as taking the graphic design route, she said.

“I kind of tell them that, if you’re creative or you like anything in art, it’s (graphic design) totally for you, there’s different aspects of design and things like that,” she said.

Other items Egan has contributed to through her graphic design skills have been invitations for Junior Achievement in Tyler, assistance with creating slogans, and projects through an internship at cue:creative, a marketing and design company in Tyler.

Organizations Egan was involved in high school included Bass Club, volleyball, National Technical Honor Society, Sources of Strength, a anti-suicide club, and Student Council.

What: Tyler Legacy High School graduation

When: 8 p.m. Saturday, May 21

Where: CHRISTUS Trinity Mother Frances Rose Stadium

Valedictorian: Kawsar Yasin

Salutatorian: Zoe Strain