Roux learner spotlight series: meet Stevie Carey

Stevie Carey (she/they) is originally from San Diego, California, but has lived in Portland since March 2020. They decided to move to Maine after completing a summer internship with a Maine-based nonprofit, and then decided to stay in Maine after learning about the academic and career opportunities available at the Roux Institute. Having joined the first cohort of Roux students in Fall 2020, Stevie plans to graduate this fall with a Master’s in Project Management and a concentration in Leadership. She is currently working as a co-op with Circa, a company that’s designed a flexible rent-payment app with community in mind. Circa was a member of the 2021 Roux Techstars Accelerator cohort, and one of 22 companies that Roux co-op students are partnering with during the spring term.

How did you hear about the Roux Institute, and what drew you to apply?
I actually live just up the street from the Roux, and was familiar with the Roux because of the construction. I wasn’t actually seeking a grad program [in 2020]; I graduated in May 2020 from Wellesley College where I did my undergrad, and it really wasn’t my intention to go back to school. But I think the pandemic changed a lot of people’s ideas of what their future could look like.

As I learned more and more about the formal process of project management, and as I was talking to admissions counselors at the Roux and getting more information, I realized it could be a really cool opportunity for me to break my way into the types of work that I wanted to do in Maine specifically. I really wanted to live and work in Maine, but I didn’t see a path for myself before the Roux Institute. Now, I feel like I’m embedded in this awesome community and network of people who want to work here and have their lives here, and who want to make Maine a place that has the types of industries that other cities are able to offer. I do feel like I would have had to move away within the next few years if I didn’t have the Roux as a landing place.

Why did you decide to move to Maine? Did you have a personal connection here?
I grew up going to a Maine summer camp that my family has been going to for a few generations, and I also spent time on Mount Desert Island during summers with my family. Every summer we would leave California and come out to Maine for three months, and then go back when school started. I didn’t know that I was going to move here long-term, but then I did an internship over the summer of 2019 with Cultivating Community, doing urban agriculture and working with communities around Maine, and in Portland particularly. I thought the city was very cool and wanted to move here, and that was my plan postgrad, but that plan was accelerated when the pandemic happened and my college campus closed. My two best friends and I thought “Let’s hop in a car and go up there.” We settled in Portland and haven’t left since.

How did you hear about Circa, and what interested you about doing a co-op with them?
I spoke with Kelli Murphy [Director of Experiential Learning] about different co-op opportunities for project management. I’m especially interested in organizational culture, and I think that tech startups are a really interesting facet of organizational culture because there’s so much to be done there. There’s so much that can be built, and that’s what excites me. So we started talking about startups, and she offered me a few names of different ones. I had never heard of Circa, but I looked up their product and thought “Oh, they’re doing something really cool and social innovative.” It seemed like everyone had this great work ethic and values, and were really focused on bringing awesome products to market. So I was immediately interested. They weren’t necessarily offering a project-management based co-op, but in startups you wear a lot of hats, and the fact that I have a project management, organizational culture, and analysis background meant that I could fill a space for them. We realized we were very compatible right off the bat.

You mentioned that you were interested in building a career in Maine, and you’re currently working with a company that focuses on rent and housing issues. Are you interested in a career related to housing issues?
That’s a good question. I feel like I wasn’t actively seeking something in the housing space. I have noticed over the course of my time living here that housing is an issue that comes up over and over again. We’re all learning about the rising housing prices in Portland; it’s becoming a city that is unlivable for people who are earning a living wage right now, like every major city. I was attracted to Circa because of their socially innovative product, but also because they worked in housing. The more I’m learning and reading about the housing crisis, the more I’m becoming radicalized about housing issues. It was on my radar before, but now it’s becoming something that I’d be interested in working in. I’m curious to see what crops up in that space.

What other types of industries or niches are you interested in?
I was an environmental studies major in college, and I find sustainability to be a really important and poignant subject. That’s a direction I take in my personal life, so professionally it would be really cool to work with a company that prioritizes creating sustainable products. I’ve heard of people that are doing work in that space, that are connected to the Roux, and I think that’s probably a direction I could see myself heading in as well. Particularly because we have so many natural resources directly around us.

What are your hobbies and favorite activities outside of academics?
I really enjoy the winter, even as someone from California. I’m a big skier, and that’s been my favorite pandemic activity with my friends because you’re able to social distance and be outside for a full day without freezing. I also joined a bowling league with my roommate and a bunch of other friends. Recreational sports in Portland have been a particularly positive experience for me; I was a college athlete, so I imagined at some point that I would find some sort of team community, and bowling randomly became that community. It’s really fun, but I feel like it was lacking queer, young energy in that space. And our team has really brought that energy full-force, and potentially disrupted some really deeply rooted “boys’ club” energy in the bowling league. But it’s been really fun, and that’s the point of a rec sport.

Do you have any resolutions for 2022?
I do a lot of food-based resolutions, so I think I want to eat more hotdogs and try out more restaurants in 2022.