Ava Fratesi

When I was thinking about going back to school, I asked my current boss and my future boss what they would do. I said I really would love to go back to school, but is it necessary to have a master's or any type of minor? My mentor told me the best thing that she could have ever done that she didn't do was go into a business minor or MBA program. When she first started out, she had to ask her husband, who graduated in business, for help. She said she wished she personally would have known that, because starting her own business was a little tough since she didn't know all the information about starting a business. I took her advice and went into a marketing minor, which was more business-based. I think that was the biggest thing that helped me, because it helps me kind of run a side business that I have of wedding crests and stationery, and I'm hoping that will turn into an actual full-on residential design business at some point in my life.

I think if I never would have asked to intern at a young age, I would have not known how much I would have loved this field and how much I would have adored it. So I think the advice I would give is always to put yourself out there, even though it's scary at some times, but in the end, it'll help you kind of discover who you are and what you want to do in your life.

I think the biggest challenge right now is that when you go back to school, a lot of people do undergrad and then go have experience in the real world before coming back. I think it was hard for me because I went straight back to school instead of going out. I obviously had internships and stuff, but I think it would have been a lot better if I would have had experience before that. Because I decided to just come straight back to school, it made the job market very, very hard. I didn't have that experience, even though I was a master's student. So I think the most challenging part was because the job market was so bad at this point in time, it was very challenging to find a job that would fit my needs and I would fit their needs. Once that kind of settled, I think everything is good. I feel like I can breathe because I was able to get a job with somebody that I really adored. His name's Roger Higgins, and he took me under his wing when I was so scared as an intern, as a junior in college. Now I get the opportunity to work with him again.

I think trust is a big value to me, and just having someone that's very trustworthy and that you can rely on. Personally, I've never been the type to rely on someone. I feel like I can always do it alone, but obviously, growing up, you realize you can't do everything by yourself. So just having that team of people that are there for you whenever you're down or whenever you're stuck. Design is a field where sometimes you'll just feel stuck, like you can't move, and so having that team to kind of fall back on helps you go in the right direction. I would also say keeping your people that mean the most to you always at an arm's length apart, because they're always going to be the ones to pick you up whenever you're feeling down, or whenever you just can't keep going, or you just need help sometimes. I think those would be my two most important values, even in work and in life.