In a sea of adult architects, Coppell High School senior Charlotte Selby stands on a ladder overlooking the people at NorthPark Center.
Meticulously placing can after can onto her latest creation, her eyes are laser focused on the sculpture in front of her. Over 5,000 tin cans later, she steps back and admires the sculpture towering in front of her.
Once a year, nonprofit organization CANstruction hosts its competition at NorthPark Center, where it invites different companies to build a sculpture out of tin cans with a specific theme. They are judged on different things such as height, how many cans used, and artistic prowess.
Selby joined her dad, Dale Selby, and his company, BRW Architects, in building statues out of tin cans at North Park Center in her freshman year. Working alongside her dad and his colleagues, she has so far helped create three tin can sculptures. These sculptures followed the themes, “Game Over for Hunger”, “Writing an End to Hunger”, and “Depart from Hunger.”
The statues are constructed in one day and displayed at North Park Center for one month. The cans are then donated to the North Texas Food Bank. This year, the theme was to recreate famous artwork and 115,833 cans were donated.
The community service aspect of the project piqued Charlotte’s interest as she aims to give back to the world, an attribute she credits her dad for. She volunteers in school organizations, such as CHS Student Council and is part of the Red Jackets.
“My dad is a very community oriented person, and he has really tried to raise me with those values,” Charlotte said. “I think that’s why I wanted to help build the statues in the first place.”
She was excited to work on the tin can sculptures with her dad so she could get to know his profession better, and could have a shared passion with him.
“Seeing Charlotte volunteer to help out with CanStruction is just another example of her willingness to help out others who are less fortunate,” Mr. Selby said. “As her dad, I’m always proud of her, but to see her give her time freely to causes such as this makes me think her mom and I raised her right.”
Charlotte also attributes her own creative background as a dancer into the creation of the sculptures. Although many don’t credit dance as a creative outlet, her experience in dance stimulates the artistic side of her brain, and allows her to take on a creative role in the process.
“While I don’t have a huge role in the ‘architecture’ part of the process, I get to assemble it and decide how I want it to look, which is definitely a creative effort,” Charlotte said. “I dance, which isn’t necessarily a super creative thing, but gives me a kind of artistic side.”
Creating the sculptures also gave Charlotte the opportunity to exercise her leadership skills, which led her to gain confidence. Despite her being the only teenager building a sculpture, she was able to take command of the group and not let the age disparity intimidate her.
“It was mostly my dad and his colleagues working on the architecture part, but I got to sort of dictate where everything went,” Charlotte said. “It was weird being the only kid at first, but everyone was really nice and receptive.”
Her helpful and communicative spirit manifests into other avenues as well. As a Lariette, she strives to create a welcoming atmosphere, and the people around her cite her exuberant personality.
“She’s definitely very bubbly and likes to talk to everybody,” Lariettes coach Hayley Mitchell said. “She likes to stay busy and her helping others within the Lariettes kind of keeps her busy.”
In the future, Charlotte plans to major in environmental science due to her passion for helping others, and giving back to her community. Specifically, she wants to go into marine biology to research how to save coral reefs.
“Donating the cans to food banks stems from me going into environmental science because they both help make the world a better place,” Charlotte said.
She also plans to continue building sculptures with BRW Architects, and to continue to volunteer outside of high school.
“Even though it’ll be difficult with college, I really want to keep building sculptures with my dad, or even start doing something similar on my own,” Selby said.
Follow @anvita_bondada and @CHSCampusNews on X.
