Susie Seum | Designer + Founder of CREATIVE MINDS

Drawing, painting, sculpting, singing, and dancing drove Susie Seum's creative spirit from an early age.  As she pursued her passion for the arts, Susie earned money at her local parks and recreation center lifeguarding, teaching children to swim, and leading children in activities.  The anticipation of the children's excitement was fun and always made coming to work enjoyable.  Susie graduated from the University of Illinois at Chicago with a degree in Fine Arts, specializing in Industrial Design with a minor in Music.  She began her design career in the Midwest of America and always continued to actively sing in organized choirs and ensembles.  Her experience working for large companies, such as Motorola, Whirlpool Corporation, and Procter and Gamble, expanded her knowledge of technology, User Experience, product development, brand strategy, and Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) while giving her tremendous experience working in multi-disciplinary teams, project leadership, budget managing and project management.  Her experience working within small agencies and as a free-lancer allowed her to work flexible hours and experience many different types of design work while starting her family.  Watching her own children grow up in multiple countries was eye-opening.  Susie noticed that not all children have the same opportunities to be creative due to family or cultural lifestyles.  When her family moved to Düsseldorf, Germany in 2015, Susie seized the opportunity to work with children again.  Creative Minds was born in March 2017 providing additional creative after school activities at ISR International School on the Rhine in Neuss, Germany.  Over the years, Creative Minds has grown from 15 students participating in 3 classes per week to over 90 children participating in over 7 classes per week during their after-school programs.  Creative Minds strives to inspire each child to reach their greatest creative potential.  Susie enjoys teaching each lesson and seeing each child express their own WOW moment.  She continues to offer new classes each academic year, creating non-repeating lessons to the kids who love to come and create again and again!