Dreamer into Doer

By: Alison Lambert

Yesterday, Martha Stewart featured a special segment on her TV show where she honors two winners of her annual Dreamers into Doers contest. These women have turned their passion into a business or philanthropic venture-one woman for running a non-profit business and another who runs a for-profit company.
Erin Slagle won the non-profit category. She is the CEO of College Mentor for Kids, an organization that pairs at-risk elementary school students with a college mentor through weekly activities in order to expose them to higher education. This gives the kids the opportunity to achieve their potential and create a nurturing atmosphere.
Erin faced some hardships before she identified her goal in life. After she lost both her parents at age 16, she made some poor decisions and failed her last semester in college. Disregarding college altogether, she met her own personal mentor who changed her mind and talked her into enrolling in Purdue University. This same mentor asked Erin to start a program called College Mentor for Kids later on. After successfully graduating college, Erin worked at College Mentors for Kids headquarters and expanded to program nationally. Erin took over as CEO and has consistently made impressive changes regarding youth development and educational achievement. Through higher education, culture, and community service activities, kids are constantly gaining an extensive knowledge and expanding their view of the world.
Erin is an inspiration for all young entrepreneurs in the world who want to make a difference. Although Erin’s life took an unexpected turn for the worst at a young age, she learned from her experience and dealt with it successfully. Erin is a great example of the principles illustrated in Spencer Johnson’s book “Who Moved My Cheese?” She was touched by her mentor and looked for “her cheese” by getting a degree and becoming a successful CEO. From being the “Least likely to succeed” to the “most likely to succeed”, she moved her cheese by defining her own success and learning to be happy in life.

what dreams are MADE of...

"Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for He has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you."
-Hebrews 13:5

There is no way to get around it, in order to succeed in life one must have money and the most common way of obtaining money in today’s society is to get a job. Money is what sustains us and it is what gives us the means to survival and beyond that it allows us to enjoy pleasures in life. In many ways, money drives us. With that being said it comes as no surprise that people who find a job for the sake of having money are often left unfulfilled. In order to refrain from this many people attend college to get a degree that will hopefully give them more options to find better jobs with better pay and in turn a better way of life. I, however, am a firm believer that money does not make you happy in the long term, but finding a job that you love.... will.
As a senior at the University of Oklahoma my time to find this dream job was fast approaching, and half way through my last semester I felt confused and much like I was the only one of my peers that had absolutely no clue what they would be doing with their diploma. However, that all changed when I was browsing on the internet one day, for what I don’t recall, and came across the Web site prcouture.com. The name itself sparked my interest and I delved further into what the site was about, and as I researched the idea of Fashion PR became extremely intriguing to me.

Ultimately my dream job would have to be designing clothes for a living because I think it is very important to do something that you are passionate about and fashion is one of the only things I know it would be hard for me to get tired of. A few of the steps I am currently taking to accomplish this dream are: I applied to a fashion school in Las Vegas and will attend in April 2008. I also ingest as much fashion as I can be it through television, magazines, or internet. I know I can accomplish my goal of having my dream job because my public relations degree will give me the tools I need to market myself to the media and other outlets and my fashion degree will give me the skills I need to be a designer.

Fashion is a fast-paced and ever-changing career and I think that is why I love it so much. I decided to continue my education with fashion because having the two degrees will broaden my opportunities upon graduation. I will have the option to do fashion design, fashion pr, or public relations in any realm I choose. It is necessary to be specialized in today’s job market because there are so many more college graduates then there have been in generations past.

There is a long list of designers I admire because of their individuality and uniqueness in the fashion world. It is important to be a brand as a fashion designer and some of my favorites are: Betsey Johnson, Christian Dior, and Chanel.

“Making clothes involves what I like…color, pattern, shape and movement…I like the everyday process…the people, the pressure, the surprise of seeing the work come alive walking and dancing around on strangers. Like red lipstick on the mouth, my products wake up and brighten and bring the wearer to life…drawing attention to her beauty and specialness…her moods and movements…her dreams and fantasies.”

– Betsey Johnson

I am most interested in haute couture because it allows you to be very personalized in your designs and I am a big fan of having a one-of-a-kind design. Fashion allows people to express themselves as them; we are what we wear essentially and for the reason that I want to dress people to make them feel good about themselves in their own skin by putting on the most amazing clothing they can.