College applications, midterms, first quarter grades…and portfolios. I may have until December, but I have a feeling it’ll come fast. So I’m working away on all my paintings, drawings, garments, and fashion figures especially. No one knows what kind of stress I’m under better than my mom.

My mom loves that I love the Precollege Classes at FIT. She was the one who had told me about them when I was a sophomore. She had also been the one who told me about FIT when I was in middle school, when I had become obsessed with drawing clothing. I had gone through elementary school designing everything, but after 5th grade fashion had become my main designing-desire (however, I still remember my rainbow colored dream-house from about 2nd grade, each room was a different color and I had a spiral staircase with a fish-tank in the handrails). She’s a big supporter of SUNY schools, especially since getting her masters and becoming a Professor at SUNY New Paltz. She had taken me and my friends to visit FIT when I was in 8th grade, and I knew I had to go there.

My art teachers are some of my biggest supporters of my ventures in Precollege classes. When auditioning for Advanced Placement Art at my school, I talked mostly of the Summer class I was planning on taking and the internship I got. I had actually gotten the internship when my friend from work was working at Panera, and a woman who is very involved in the fashion industry started talking to her about FIT. She told the woman how I come into our art class everyday talking about FIT constantly, and the woman gave my friend her card and said to tell  me to call her! I met with her and brought my portfolio. She was impressed, but I knew I had to keep practicing because it was very nerve-wracking to have my first experience presenting my portfolio as a junior in high school.

I know I want to be a fashion designer, and the best way to get there is to go to college for fashion design, but thankfully I didn’t have to wait all through high school to get some experience!

So after getting home from FIT today, all I’ve been wanting to do is sketch and practice all the techniques my professor taught me! However, I have tons of homework -_- But my teacher taught me how to draw faces and I’ve already gotten 10x better!

Karlie