Yale’s Jimmy Carter shares a certain quality with his late presidential namesake: a heart full of empathy and ambition.
It’s what drew Carter, a graduating senior from Branford College majoring in mechanical engineering, to consider Yale in the first place.
Carter was 10 years old, looking at YouTube videos on his mother’s iPhone, when he came across a student’s “Why I Chose Yale” video. That video highlighted Yale was a place to engage with both art and science, community and the corporate world, work and play.
“I was fascinated by it, and as I got older, I realized I didn’t want to ever give up exploring all my hobbies and passions in a way that felt genuine,” he said. “I didn’t want to give up a part of myself when I went to college.”
Carter, who spent much of his childhood in Geneva, Switzerland, has stayed true to that notion.
Part of his Yale years involved co-founding the tech start-up Daemo AI, which generates AI agents specifically designed for a client’s database. For example, Daemo (co-founded by Srikar Godilla, a member of Yale College’s Class of 2024) might create an AI agent to help with travel bookings, or to screen candidates for job openings. After commencement, Carter will relocate to San Francisco, where he’ll focus on the startup.
Yale has also helped Carter shape and expand his artistic sensibilities. He learned how to use a 3D printer and a laser cutter to create art objects, including a wooden map of New Haven; for more than a year, he sang bass with the a cappella group Shades of Yale.
“My Mom suggested I audition for that,” he said. “It was an incredible experience. There’s something about everyone getting together at rehearsals, everyone with their own stories and drama, that felt very warm. We filled up the room.”
Perhaps most personal of all, Carter made movies — live action, animation, sometimes both. He created a movie about a 12-year-old child with autism (“Don’t Tell Father”), for example, and a photorealistic 3D animation for the Yale Entrepreneurial Society.
Carter on the set of his film, “The Other Me,” which he wrote and directed.
One of his movies, “The Other Me,” competed at film festivals in Toronto, Detroit, Dublin, Hamburg, and Berlin. Carter wrote the screenplay, raised money, and produced and directed the film, an endeavor that meant flying back and forth from New Haven to Los Angeles, where he shot the film with a crew of more than 70 people.
The story, a genre mash-up with elements of drama, humor, and horror, involves a young man and his family renting a seemingly idyllic vacation house alongside another family they don’t know very well. One of Carter’s friends described it as a mix of “Get Out,” “Moonlight,” and “Hereditary.”
“I had the idea for the film one day while walking back from class,” Carter said.
For the near future, filmmaking will have to take a backseat to entrepreneurship for Carter — but he says Yale has taught him there will be a time and place for all of his interests to shine.
“Yale’s made me a better version of myself,” he said. “Seeing people doing great things all around me helped me to dream big.”
