Meet the Beauty Student

I am formerly Empire’s Social Media Specialist. Soon, I will leave Empire Education Group and head to the Whitehall, PA Empire Beauty School to fulfill my lifelong dream of pursuing a career in Cosmetology. Follow my journey through my education, from my first day of class to my student salon experience.  To fully understand my background and reasons for changing career paths, here’s my story…

Some of my earliest memories were within the four walls of my Mom’s beauty salon-spinning my sister around on the styling chair, standing on the laps of the wash and set ladies to take out their rollers every Friday, getting a round brush stuck in my hair- I watched my mother very closely as she worked and I wanted to do everything she did. As I grew older I was given a little more responsibility in her salon, like sweeping up the hair, putting perm rods away and washing a brave family member’s hair—usually soaking them. I knew becoming a hairdresser was exactly what I wanted to do.

Like any other mother, though, mine wanted me to be exposed and open to other career paths and encouraged me to get a bachelor’s degree. Senior year of high school was rough because I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go to college, but all of my friends were so I felt it was the right thing to do. Off to Duquesne in Pittsburgh I went, 300 miles away. I drove home every weekend I possibly could and only made it about half way through the semester. Deep down I knew there was somewhere else I was supposed to be. Within 6 years, I attended 5 different colleges and changed my major 4 times, finally graduating with a marketing degree. When I made the decision to earn a marketing degree I made up my mind: if I could not attend beauty school, I would work for the company that owned the beauty schools—Empire Education Group. And I did just that. I was hired right after college by the marketing department.

Still, there was always my mother’s voice in the back of my head, saying that if I attended college, earned a degree, went to work for a while and still wanted to go beauty school then I could. Eight years after she gave me that advice, I still felt like my heart was in the wrong place. Working for Empire Education Group put me in the right industry, I was just on the wrong side of it. I was born into this industry, I am going to be a proud third generation Empire graduate in my family; my mom and grandmother were the biggest inspiration my whole life.

On December 6th I will begin my cosmetology career at Empire Beauty School in Lehigh Valley.