The most important thing to know about me is that I am dedicated to teaching and enrichment of people with creativity and design. From an early age, I've been a coach – camp counselor, Girl Scout leader, nanny – and that lead to a career track as a graphic design professor. My philosophy for life and creativity - getting lost, happy accidents, the art of accidental adventure -  is integrated into why I've become a coach. A desire for deeper impact, deeper meaning, and a deeper connection not only with people, but the natural world, that has instigated me to walk away from a tenured professorship in 2018 (those jobs where people work in one place until retirement, which is not necessarily good). Like many people, I realized I've been in one of those career HOV lanes that has limited exit ramps. I've decided to make my own exit so I could work with more people in a more rewarding way as your creativity coach.

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You could spend upwards of $100k or more and 4 years of your life for a college degree for a career whose entry level salary is equal or barely above that yearly fee. In most cases you don't start taking design courses until your second or third year and those courses make up between 10% and 25% of the required credits to graduate. With me as your creativity coach, you get the same quality program but can take those classes at your own pace with potential to complete within a year. I've compressed the 10 required courses that were required at my former institution into a quality 5 comprehensive classes for a fraction of the cost and time commitment.

 

Or, you could teach yourself design tools by watching youtube or signing up for lynda.com or udemy courses. Most people think that the computer tools make you a designer. But what's missing in all of those is a human interaction in the role of mentor and coach giving you quality projects that stretch your creative muscles and are appropriate for portfolio development leading to clients. I am looking for a small group of students of all ages and backgrounds to work with individually each month, who may be able to visit my retreat center for a group workshop offered at various times throughout the year. I'm not guaranteeing you employment, but offering my track record of successful students in rewarding positions working for themselves or others in all facets of the design industry. And I can provide some of those references offline.

 

I am offering you something different. The internet has collapsed the work environment. There are youtube stars who never went to college and making a lot more than $40k a year. There are websites after websites that offer design services for just a few dollars. There are template based programs and the software/hardware is available to everyone. So what makes design a potentially fulfilling and rewarding career choice without a degree to get you in the door? It's about proving your intellectual capacity in how you think because templates and robots cannot do that for you. It's about making interesting connections and learning about all sorts of fascinating subject matter from science to history to psychology and beyond. So how does one live a fulfilling life in this new world? It's about learning how to talk about your work, about separating your solutions from personal choices to practical problem-solving rationale. By being a creative, by being an adventurer and explorer, by understanding the intricacies of the interconnected world from nature to human population and being able to navigate the bumps, bruises, pitstops and detours that life will present along the way you can be nimble and respond in effective and innovative ways.

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Please send me a message to schedule a consultation. If you are still thinking about costs, I've outlined some of the possible scenarios on that page. I have a non-educational profile and lots of other juicy information about the the retreat center at Camp Wonder Wander which outlines many of the workshops based off of curriculum you may want to pursue. 

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LOOKING FORWARD TO MEETING YOU!

- VAL