19 at 19

My professional career started when I joined HOI 19 News at the age of 19, while attending Illinois Central College, a local community college in the area. I was so excited to get an actual job in my field of study, in television broadcasting. Now this was not my “end all, be all” career choice, as I eventually wanted to go into film production and motion graphics at Columbia College, but it paid the bills.

I always knew I wanted to do something related to the art field, as I spent most of my free time as a child drawing, painting or creating designs out of recycled materials, office supplies and really anything I could find around the house. In the seventh grade, I took a television broadcasting class and fell in love. It was at this point that I realized I could combine my love of art and television into a creative profession.

My first position at the news station was running a studio camera for the morning show. Once they realized I was decent at it, they offered me the night shift. Eventually I was employed fulltime as the graphic artist for the station and worked there for nearly 4 years.

After receiving my Associates in Mass Communications, I applied and was accepted into Columbia College in Chicago. After doing the math on the cost of tuition and housing expenses, I had to make the difficult decision not to attend. Instead I began looking for jobs in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to establish residency in order to attend the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design (MIAD).

Funny thing happened though, I had my resume on a national website (TVjobs.com), and was contacted by a recruiter in Peoria for a one-year contract position to be a video editor at Caterpillar. I knew I needed to get out of the news business, as things locally where going downhill fast, so I took the job. And after a year, I was offered a full time position.

I never saw myself working for a corporation, let alone Caterpillar. But Caterpillar has made it possible for me to finally get the Bachelors degree I had set out to obtain so many years ago, without the college debt.

I never made it to Chicago or Milwaukee for college; instead I visit both cities quite often, as I can now afford to enjoy what they both have to offer.