Step One

Go to college without the most important piece: Know Thyself

I got into NC State as a French Education major. My parents convinced me to switch to Biochemistry before orientation and I spent the next three years trying to figure out how to do something else. My Food Science and Nutrition classes had been fascinating, so I decided to change my major to Nutrition Science and received my Bachelor of Science degree in 2013. It wasn’t until a year later, newly married and without a job, that my husband and I sat down, reevaluated who I was and what I actually loved to do: Art.

Googling “How Do Artists Put Food on the Table?” led me to Graphic Design and I graduated with my Applied Associate of Science in Graphic Design in 2015 from the Art Institute of Raleigh-Durham after an intense 15 months.

I signed up with a staffing agency and got my first big-girl job about two months after graduation. I had been freelancing for small projects while I built my portfolio and skillset at school.