When April Teames Gantz isn’t enjoying the great outdoors with her husband, you’ll find her actively engaged in projects to benefit the community.
A senior in the user experience (UX) design program at BYU’s College of Fine Arts and Communications, Teames Gantz participates in groups dedicated to various causes. As a student, she finds fulfillment through working with teams formed within BYU Marriott’s Rollins Center for Technology and Entrepreneurship. Her love of design, coupled with her perseverance and team spirit, enables Teames Gantz to take advantage of all kinds of opportunities to broaden people’s accessibility to products and services.
For Teames Gantz, the pull toward studying design started with art history classes, an interest in branding, and a love of decisions driven by data. “I love learning about different art movements and styles. I also like the idea of using logic and research to drive design choices. I particularly enjoy designing with a user or purpose in mind,” says Teames Gantz.
She eventually joined the UX design program and almost immediately got involved with BYU’s Sandbox initiative through the Rollins Center; Sandbox is a startup incubator program that helps students form teams and launch tech products and software. Through the center, Teames Gantz collaborated with an all-women group to design an app called Sava, which assists women in avoiding dangerous social situations. While rewarding and successful in many ways, the experience was not without its struggles.
“There were challenges because I was so new to user experience and the program. With almost no experience, I became a cofounder on a Sandbox team,” Teames Gantz recalls. “I wore a lot of different hats as a designer, and designing a helpful product was daunting. I felt a lot of inadequacy, thinking that if I couldn’t do my job perfectly, I shouldn’t even try.”
Over time, Teames Gantz met other designers who shared their different experiences with her, which enlightened her and gave her more self-confidence. This reinforced to Teames Gantz the importance of being part of a community for support and help.
"We all possess different talents, skills, and strengths that serve as useful resources for others,” she says. “The Rollins Center plays a big part in bringing designers together outside of our classes. By being on these teams, we are learning how to work with teammates and work as business cofounders. My experience with the Rollins Center continues to provide a strong foundation for my skills and knowledge in UX.”
That community aspect allowed the team to produce the Sava app and spread awareness of the company; team members continue to work on the project. The hope is that as the students improve Sava, it will gain exposure and help more women stay safe.
Her experience with Sandbox was so rewarding that Teames Gantz opted to stay involved with the Rollins Center program. This year she is working with Leftovers. This project aims to sell restaurant leftovers at discounted prices before the food is thrown out at the end of the day. Creating greater accessibility to products and services motivates Teames Gantz to put her skills to use by joining groups that share her passions.
“I want to make opportunities more available to people. With Sava, that looks like helping women find safe and appropriate ways to exit potentially dangerous situations. In Leftovers, we focus on making leftover food more accessible to people through lower prices,” she says. “I do the same thing with my job—I work at Savology, a financial services institution, where we make financial wellness more accessible to American households.”
In all of these endeavors, Teames Gantz has learned an important lesson. “You need to choose wisely how to spend your time because you can’t do everything. Focusing on what you’re passionate about increases your skill and impact,” she reflects. That focus, she learned, takes hard work and perseverance.
By recognizing her ability to choose what to do with her time, Teames Gantz has discovered more peace and fulfillment in her life. “You can’t be a warrior for every single social issue,” she explains. “There’s nothing wrong with choosing how to spend your time and how to give your talents to something. Doing so makes me a less anxious and happier person. By working on issues I care about, I feel more fulfilled and well-rounded.”
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Writer: Samantha Clinger
