I wouldn't have found my interest in business and marketing if I hadn't accidently ended up in a Fashion Marketing class my junior year. For the longest time, I had been in love with psychology. Then, I ended up in Fashion Marketing. My name is Karla Whitman, and I am currently a senior at Redlands East Valley High School in Redlands, California. My GPA is around a 4.5, and I used to take band classes from freshman year to junior year. I am unable to take it this year due to the load of the classes that I am taking. Last year, I had the opportunity to take Fashion Marketing, which was an eye opening experience for me. I was blown away by how interesting Marketing actually is. I knew while I was in the class that I would enjoy learning more about it. That was the first thing that motivated me to pursue a degree in business. The second was my family. Two of my cousins have also gone into business, which is something I've found out more recently once we got in touch with each other once again. One of them has been traveling around the world, working for a company. I enjoyed spending time talking about finances with them as well as the stock market over all, but I also lack the knowledge of all that they know, which is another factor contributing towards wanting to learn about it and gaining a degree in marketing. Not to mention, I would also be open to traveling, getting to know more about the world while on business. Lastly, I want to start my own business. Fashion marketing helped me realize that I would like to begin my own fashion line. My grandmother did it in the past also, and I want to keep her name alive with a subdivision of her name. Perhaps I could attempt to begin a line without a marketing degree, but it would help to have studied, gained a degree, and to be hired into a stable job before attempting to invest in my own start-up. Taking Fashion Marketing was a turning point for me, leading me to better understand what I feel called towards. I spent a long time wondering what degree would be one I felt suited for, and after having taken Fashion Marketing, I now know. I know that I enjoy meeting people and having conversations about business related topics.

I attended a private school during my elementary years as well as during middle school. It was a small, private, Christian school, and it impacted me a lot from an early age. That school taught me the importance of travel, taught Bible classes and discipleship, as well as taught me general courses. When I transfered over to a public school for high school, I had been terrified. I had believed I was not prepared enough. However, I was not behind and had been thoroughly prepared by my old school. It seems strange to say that a school taught the importance of travel, but they would encourage us to read the stories of different missionaries. Some were travelers and others would try to stay in places a bit more permanently. We also had Spanish class in middle school, and the teachers would talk about different places to visit, namely Spain and Mexico. As that private school taught the importance of travel, I've made it a life goal of mine to be able to travel to as many places as possible and to become more extroverted in order to meet and get to know more people. That hope to get to know more people guided me towards Marketing, a degree that I believe I'll enjoy immensely. In the end, however, something that the school taught me was that God has a plan and a purpose for you, and you don't need to know where that leads. He has the best plan for you, and you need to listen for where he takes you. Making choices is difficult, and the thought of God having a plan is comforting. The way I feel called towards travel and towards meeting more people makes me think that it must be a part of his plan.