My name is Emilie Nouveau; on many places online people know me as Nova or DyanneNova. Until this spring I was a student at UNCC, double majoring in Computer Science and Art. I'm currently working as the Webmaster for Carolina Weekly where I manage everything dealing with the website, including content updates, design, and moderation.

I created my first website at the age of 11, since then I've been developing my skills in HTML, CSS, Javascript and in the past five years PHP, MySQL, and AJAX. I also started working with Adobe Photoshop at the age of 14 and consider myself an expert on it at this point. I've been using a wonderful open source CMS called Drupal for my latest projects, and I don't know how I ever did things without it now.

I started working in print design around three years ago, when I began working for The University Times, UNCC's student newspaper, and began taking graphic design classes for my minor. During my year as Layout Editor for the paper I developed my skills in Adobe InDesign and Illustrator, along with creating many of our front page designs and the Sudoku puzzles and frames for the Features section.

I then took charge of their news website, NinerOnline. I designed a completely new, cleaner, and professional look for the site, released in the Fall of 2008, that better integrated with the print newspaper.

What about that mouse on your shoulder?

I get this question sometimes. The mouse represents the influence of both of my grandmothers (one who collected anything mice related for 50 years) on my life and work. One of my grandmothers inspired my work in art and taught me that caring about other people is more important than money or success. The other taught me to be independent, work hard, and keep smiling.