What brought you here?

For me, this means what brought you into advertising?

I have always been into helping people whenever possible.
So, as a side job while I was studying art education @ my first college, I used to help my best friends' older brother get through his advertising/marketing classes.

He introduced me to AAF (American Advertising Foundation) and invited me to attend chapter meetings where I was too passionate to be shy. Here I was, this bystander, fully involved in their campaign brainstorm sessions. I jumped in and shared my observations about how human beings think and feel and behave. I was a natural strategist; an idea generator & creative thinker.

I found his homework fascinating! I enjoyed spending time on it.

There came this pivotal moment when I actually considered advertising as a profession.
It seemed like the perfect marriage between communications, art, & psychology.

Since I already had exposure to what the school career was like, I began to question the training a traditional state school like SIU. I looked at what they were doing to prepare their ad students & thought about location, BIG TIME. I decided that if I wanted to study advertising Southern Illinois might not be the direction I wanted to take for a career in advertising. Rather than changing my major, I would change my training.

In retrospect, I think I was exposed to this passion very naturally (helping a friend). 
The realization came to me when I noticed that I was spending more time on his homework than my own. I think finding myself through this example shows a courageous part of my character to move across the country to completely "go for it."

I don't doubt for a second that this is where I am supposed to be AND I just can't wait to look back on the days when I used to get paid $20 an assignment & $50 for finals.