Jillian Vordick
Hi! I’m Jillian. I care deeply about telling stories, and I enjoy learning and using new tools to do so. I make things for people to interact with, in and beyond the browser. I’m especially passionate about creating educational and transformative experiences.
I’m pursuing my MS in Computational Design because I believe that computational methods offer significant advancements in rigorous, truthful, and impactful storytelling.
I plan to center my research around questions of interactivity, representation, and narrative justice. I hope to explore these themes as they relate to journalism, museum exhibitions, and other public-facing educational efforts.
I previously ran an award-winning podcast, Pit Perspectives UNC, which investigated social and political topics through the eyes of students at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. To listen to the show on Spotify, click here.
I’m pursuing my MS in Computational Design because I believe that computational methods offer significant advancements in rigorous, truthful, and impactful storytelling.
I plan to center my research around questions of interactivity, representation, and narrative justice. I hope to explore these themes as they relate to journalism, museum exhibitions, and other public-facing educational efforts.
I’m currently looking for roles in data journalism, data and/or geospatial visualization, community archiving, and museum exhibition design.
I previously ran an award-winning podcast, Pit Perspectives UNC, which investigated social and political topics through the eyes of students at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. To listen to the show on Spotify, click here.
When I’m not reading, writing, or researching, you can find me rock climbing in West Virginia.
None of the work on this site is AI-generated or “vibe-coded.” While I am curious about the future of how artificial intelligence may augment journalistic work--and particularly how it is already transforming the practice of creative coding--I do not use these tools to create my personal projects in an effort to learn as much as possible through making mistakes and experimenting in other ways. The only use of AI present in my work here is the use of Claude for limited debugging when working with D3.
education
Carnegie Mellon University
MS Computational Design 2025-2027
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
BA Philosophy 2021-2025
Graduated with Highest Honors
Duke University
BA Philosophy (dual-enrolled) 2021-2025
The Robertson Scholars Leadership Program
Full-ride merit scholarship allowing for joint study between UNC and Duke.
Awarded 12/2021
Python*
JavaScript*
D3.js*
Vega-Lite*
Svelte*
HTML/CSS*
C#*
geospatial:
ArcGIS
Datawrapper
Mapbox
3D modeling:
Houdini
Grasshopper
SketchUp
Adobe Substance Stager
MetaShape (photogrammetry)
Unity*
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Illustrator
Figma
Flourish
video/animation/audio:
Final Cut Pro X
Motion
TouchDesigner
data:
Excel
Airtable
*(learning Fall 2025)
experience
ResearcherDuke University, Aug. 2024 - May 2025
· Member of Dr. Rebecca Stein’s Team, War and Visual Archives: The Israel-Gaza War and Beyond.
· Curated a digital research archive of non-photographic images, focusing on AI-generated images.
· Conducted archival research for Dr. Stein’s project on perpetrator materials created by Israeli soldiers.
· Analyzed journalistic and investigative methods for documenting and visualizing racial violence.
Routesetter and DesignerThe Boulder Garden, Nov. 2024 - May 2025
· Built and tested rock climbing routes for climbers of all abilities, balancing aesthetics and movement.
· Planned three major events, including the gym’s first competition and youth training clinic.
· Created graphics for social media, stickers, t-shirts, and other merchandise.
Writer and Producer
Pit Perspectives UNC Podcast, Aug 2021 - Jan. 2024
· Led a team of 15 students in creating episodes highlighting UNC student views on social topics.
· Researched, wrote, and hosted 45-minute episodes covering interviews with students and experts, history, and current events; organized and synthesized 100+ student interviews per episode.
· Grew the show to 5,000 streams; featured on the UNC Philosophy, Politics, and Economics webpage.
· Conducted and arranged interviews with industry professionals for episode features.
Reading Teacher Sunflower County Freedom Project, May - July 2022
· Developed a 7th-grade curriculum and set of lesson plans for Look Both Ways by Jason Reynolds.
· Curated educational activities in restorative justice, problem-solving, and non-violent communication.
· Navigated diverse backgrounds in my classroom while focusing on improving reading comprehension.
relevant coursework
Fundamentals of Programming (Fall 2025)
Data Visualization (Fall 2025)
Creative Cartography (Spring 2024)
Data Journalism (Fall 2024)
Creative Nonfiction Writing (Fall 2024)
Masterworks of Journalism (Fall 2024)
Computational Media (Fall 2024)
Fact-Checking (Spring 2023).
awards
2nd Place Best Podcast College Broadcasters Inc. National Contest October 2022
Given to my Pit Perspectives UNC episode “The Ethics of Pit Preaching: Conversation and Censorship at UNC.”
Robertson Scholars Leadership Program 2022-2025
The Robertson Scholarship is a full-ride merit scholarship program at Duke University and UNC-Chapel Hill.
curriculars
- The Tartan (CMU’s student-run newspaper)
- CMU AI Safety Initiative (AI Governance Reading Group)
- Fall 2025 AI and Design Research Workshops run by Professor Daragh Byrne
- 15-112 Python Introductory Hackathon (November 2025)
Last Updated 09.22.2025