When passing Mya Marchik ’26 in the hallway, it’s hard not to be awestruck by her sense of style. From wearing handmade, sterling silver jewelry to tailored skirts, Marchik channels her creativity and talent into all of her works. But her innovation extends beyond style — she creates allergen-free and eco-friendly items using various technical skills, leaving many wondering how she developed this unconventional skillset.
By working on simple projects with her parents, Marchik developed an early passion for crafting and gained hands-on experience creating a variety of items.
“When I was younger, my dad [and I] made a lot of wooden objects,” Marchik said. “One of my favorite things we used to make was little race karts.”
Inspired after crafting small woodworking projects with her dad, Marchik started designing clothing that accommodated her unique needs, involving skills such as sewing and crocheting.
“I realized there was not as much accessibility for me when I looked for clothing, because clothes never fit right. For example, I tailor jeans to fit my waist,” Marchik said. “I’m highly sensitive to most mixtures of polyester. I either make or have to look into what’s in [my clothing] before I can wear it, because I get reactions.”
Marchik’s hypersensitive skin has also affected what jewelry she can wear, leading her to create handmade pieces rather than buy more expensive jewelry to accommodate her allergies.
“I’m allergic to a lot of alloys, so I have to use sterling silver,” Marchik said. “I either spend money or I make [my jewelry]; I choose to make it. It takes a while, and you need a lot of skill to do it, but I absolutely love my work.”
In addition to her clothing accommodations, Marchik also requires hearing accommodations — specifically hearing aids — for her bilateral hearing loss due to a lack of sound-sensitive cells. While her hearing aids aren’t as restrictive as a full cochlear implant, or a surgically implanted device that picks up noise, they still cause her to miss out on some important tones.
“My hearing has always impacted me, but [the extent to which] it impacts me depends. With woodworking, it has somewhat impacted me because I can’t hear saws. There have been plenty of times when I’d forgotten to turn off a saw because I didn’t know that it was still on,” Marchik said. “Depending on what you’re looking at, my hearing can impact most of my hobbies.”
Ixel Owens ’26, a close friend of Marchik, credits Marchik’s willingness to take on challenges using her passion for creating.
“She likes to make corsets, dresses, skirts [and] shirts. If she sees it on Pinterest, she’ll do it,” Owens said. “It does not matter how much skill it takes.”
While Marchik originally created her own clothes by necessity, the talent and skill she developed introduced her to new creative opportunities. Marchik and Owens often attend Renaissance Fairs, outdoor events that create immersive experiences mimicking historical periods. For these, Marchik often creates historical or fantasy-inspired outfits, aligning with the medieval aesthetic. Owens notes that preparing and attending these events is how they spend much of their time together.
“We want to go to a bunch of different Renaissance places. Renaissance is just a factor of our friendship in general,” Owens said. “At one point, we’re going to work on different [pieces] from different eras.”
Marchik’s creativity is supplemented by a passion for science that encourages her to learn more about the processes she uses to create clothing. She loves learning about the science behind her creations, from staining glass to dyeing clothes.
“I like dyeing fabrics, but I have to use different chemicals to be able to get a fabric from one base to another without [reducing] the quality. I make a lot of natural dyes, and I use dyes as well,” Marchik said. “This allows me to be able to take something from a teal blue to a wine red.”
Marchik has also applied her passion for creating to other fields within STEM. Recently, Marchik has been engineering a water filtration system designed to filter out nitrates from runoff rainwater.
“The water filtration system is for AP Environmental Science, but it’s also something I’m interested in,” Marchik said. “It’s this filter that you can apply to the gutter system of buildings that allows the rain water to separate [from] the minerals and minimizes the amount of nitrates that are [present in] our drinking water. This allows us to use the expendable water that we have from rainwater and minimize the amount of chemicals or minerals that can damage our health.”
AP Environmental Science teacher Christopher Murdock uses the sustainability project for an end-of-year assignment to give students a chance to utilize course content in real-world applications. While most students don’t start the project until after the AP test in May, Murdock introduced it at the beginning of the school year, prompting Marchik to start hers early.
“I told my students that we would be doing a sustainability project that could be about any topic around the concept of sustainability. It’s fully open-ended. While we hadn’t officially started that project, Mya had been working on it since day one,” Murdock said.
Her filter works by mimicking the layers of the ground to naturally pull out excess minerals. The base is made of silicone and designed to be 3D printed before being filled with filtration sediments. Extracting minerals like nitrates balances the environment by removing added chemicals, often used in farming.
“Plants need nitrates, but [nitrates] need the process of being turned into ammonia, through nitrogen fixation. Nitrogen fixation is part of the [nitrogen] cycle, but we keep adding nitrates [through] fertilizers to our land,” Marchik said. “It raises the salinity levels of the soils, and it degrades our soil composition. Because of our nitrate levels, [Iowa] is [among the highest] in the United States in cancer rates from nitrates.”
Alongside her filtration system, Marchik hopes to protect the environment in her future career. While her allergies prevent her from working outdoors, she still wants to practice conservation through a career. While most conservation careers involve moving and spending long times in nature, Marchik chose to pursue a more stable career in environmental law.
“I have always wanted to [work with] the environment, but it’s difficult for me to be out in nature, as I’m allergic to most plants and grass,” Marchik said. “I love to protect our environment and our animals, because that has always been [something] that I’ve cared about. Going into environmental law means that I can still protect our environment, but I don’t have to be in direct contact.”
Owens believes Marchik’s passion comes from her love for helping others.
“She’s very passionate about helping people and making others happy. She’s also very passionate about taking care of the environment and plants,” Owens said.
Murdock emphasizes how Marchik’s success stems from her passion for science.
“I’m happy she’s in my class, and it’s always fun watching somebody who’s very passionate about something do the work without being told. It shows you the type of student she is,” Murdock said. “She’s one of those students who, when she gets an idea in her head, it must be fully [executed] for her to truly feel accomplished.”
