From Survival to Strategy
Building a Life and Career Through Communication
I didn’t follow a traditional path to college or business. I built both at the same time.
Where It Started
At 17 years old, my life changed completely.
I was preparing for college, planning to pursue a degree at a large state school. But when I found out I was pregnant with my daughter, everything shifted.
My plans didn’t disappear, but they had to evolve.
I was accepted to Berry College with a scholarship, and at the same time, my now husband made the decision to apply, so we could build a life together as a family.
We moved to Rome, Georgia, renovated my grandparents’ home, and just weeks after welcoming our daughter, we started college.
From the beginning, our experience looked different than most students.
While others spent late nights in the library, we were at home raising a child, learning how to balance responsibility, education, and growth all at once.
Berry became more than a school. It became a foundation.
What Berry College Gave me
Berry gave me structure during a time when life felt uncertain.
It gave me space to explore what I was good at, what I enjoyed, and what kind of future I wanted to build, not just for myself, but for my family.
Through my coursework and hands-on experiences, I discovered that I didn’t just love creating content. I loved understanding why it works.
I became drawn to strategy, analytics, and the psychology behind how people connect with brands and stories.
Turning Education Into Real-World Strategy
Explore my work
Each project represents a combination of strategy, creativity, and intentional storytelling.
Social Media
Strategy Before Content
Through my Communication coursework, I worked on a full-scale strategic campaign for Gerber, where I conducted a social audit, developed a content strategy, and presented insights backed by data.
This experience, as well as others, taught me how to look beyond posting content and instead focus on performance, audience behavior, and measurable outcomes.
Today, I use these same skills to help businesses build intentional, results-driven social media strategies. Read more about this experience, and others that shape my social media strategy work, by viewing my work below.
Marketing Strategy
Understanding The "Why" Behind The Audience
In my Marketing coursework, I learned that effective marketing begins long before visuals. It starts with understanding the audience, the market, and the message.
I learned best practices for integrating SEO and SEM on blog posts. I use this knowledge, along with knowledge from my Communication coursework to build websites (like this one!).
This knowledge now shapes how I approach every client project, ensuring all marketing channels correlate within one another. Read more about this experience, and others that shape my marketing and design work, by viewing my work below.
Graphic Design & Branding
Building Visual Identity With Purpose
Through my design and multimedia courses, I developed branding systems, advertising materials, and visual campaigns, including a full branding project for Samaritan’s Purse.
These experiences directly translate into the branding and design work I now create for real clients, from logos to social media graphics to full brand identities.
Read more about this experience, and others that shape my design work, by viewing my work below.
Photography
From Hobby to Professional
Photography started as a passion long before college, but through my coursework, I refined my technical skills in lighting, composition, and editing.
Multimedia classes strengthened the foundation of what is now a core part of my business, capturing authentic, meaningful moments for clients.
Read more about these experiences, and others that shape my photography style, by viewing my work below.
From Student to Business Owner
Building Something of My Own
In January 2024, I launched my photography business.
What began as a creative outlet quickly grew into something more, offering not only photography, but also social media marketing and branding services.
Everything I learned at Berry now plays a role in how I serve my clients, from strategy and analytics to design and storytelling.
My education did not just prepare me for a job. It helped me build a business.
Why This Degree Matters
My degree in Communication represents more than coursework.
It represents growth, resilience, and the ability to communicate with purpose.
It reflects not only what I have learned, but how I have applied that knowledge in real-world situations and built something meaningful from it.
More Than A Degree
Berry was never just about earning a degree for me.
It was a stepping stone in a much bigger story, one where I was learning how to be a better mom, a better wife, and a better version of myself.
There were moments while building my business where I realized I could create income without finishing my degree. I could have stopped there.
But Berry gave me something deeper.
It taught me how to think strategically.
It taught me how to communicate with purpose.
And most importantly, it taught me how to tell a story, my own, and now, others’.
I am part of a statistic that says fewer than 2% of teen mothers earn a college degree by the age of 30 (CSUSM, 2017).
But this is not just about proving a statistic wrong.
It is about building a life that my children can look at and see what is possible.
My why has always been my family.
And now, through my business, I help other business owners discover and communicate their why, so they can connect with the people they are meant to serve in a meaningful way.
Because behind every brand is a story.
And the right story, told well, can change everything.