college essay notes

design.

a search for meaning

finding my voice

i wouldn't necessarily consider myself a designer, though, really, that is how i could sum up how i get paid. in a manner, i am a communicator. i wouldn't consider myself specifically just a visual communicator, though that is the main preference in how i see and perceive the world.

why do i want to go back to school? well, i know i do not need a degree to get a job. i've already had jobs within my field. at present, i freelance. at present, i'm seeking more substantial connections within the world and with what i do.

in all honesty i want to return to school because i like learning. i'd become entrenched in "professionalism" throughout my early and quick rise to variable success and experience, though my work lacked meaning or substance. this wracked my brain, especially as a creative professional -- "how am i

work was work, gruelingly dispassioned, disappointed, disenchanted -- and whichever "quarter-life crisis" terminology you so choose to employ -- and i'd no longer felt had that vision to beautify and empower humanity that fueled my youth. melodramatic poetic romanticism aside, my heart was broken.

What are your reasons for applying to the Eli Whitney Students Program at Yale? Tell us what personal, professional, or educational experiences influenced your decision to apply. What personal and academic goals do you think Yale can help you to reach?

I learned about the Yale School of Art a few years ago, admiring the MFA graphic design work. I plan on finishing a degree in general studio art, but with my background in graphic design, propensity for drawing, and photography, I know I will find a vastly enriching and rigorous collegiate experience at this prestigious university. It will fulfill my intellectual needs and extracurricular interests (read: inventive and entrepreneurial "projects," such as my concept to save the news industry, and various ideas

Specifically, I refer to my artwork as a "Harrison Bergeron" body of work.

I plan to apply for a prestigious, year-long arts fellowship in Italy at Fabrica, where artists do bodies of work focused on social concern and change.

yale school of art

graphic design

educational experience

professional bits

I am influential upon, not just my community, but everything I become involved in and the arts and trends on a grander scale. I am a facilitator. I am a communicator. I make things happen. I set things in motion. I create connections, forge bonds and establish relationships -- between people, ideas, theories, emotions...and love and life. I make things happen.

And even though I'd tasted success, recognition, respect, and such a reputation at such a young age -- being fully self-taught -- I am still left unsatisfied. Call it a "quarter-life crisis" if you'd like, but I am still not satisfied. I've made connections for other people. I've forged bonds while others have made their money from my introductions. I've established relationships on all facets of the professional level. I've tasted manna, and the past few years wasn't it. My mind craves -- it yearns -- to learn, to be challenged, to foster, garner, nurture all the hope in this world.

I came up with my doctoral thesis at the age of 17. I decided that I would pursue psychology research to scientifically prove that art is a human thrival need. [a dream of mine is to get] I plan on getting a MacArthur fellowship. I want to create art that communicates various aspects of the human psyche so that others may understand themselves and each other better. I plan on building a school in my old age in order to give the gift of education to those that deserve it when they may not have the means to do so due to class, income, or availability. I plan on saving the news industry. I plan on collaborating with my architecture friend and a chemical engineer to create new sustainable and 100% recyclable materials. I plan on designing furniture

Write a personal essay on any topic of your choosing that you think will help the Admissions Committee to know you better as a person and as a student.

Who is Nikki Loehr? What does she do?

I grew up in a liberal arts environment. I had a great GPA when I went to Ursuline Academy of Dallas, a liberal arts women's Catholic college preparatory school. When I went to public school, I was barely passing. So, I started college early -- at community college -- at 16 years-old. I went to a Texas state university (University of North Texas) after that, and subsequently failed out at 20, with only enough credits as a sophomore. I'm not sure if I was on track at that point.

An interchange between my half-brother and I went like this: "I don't think state school is the right for me. I grew up in private school. I'm used to smaller classes with more individual attention from the professors. I'm used to doing enough research that's comparable to a doctoral thesis and having my intellectual quandaries fostered and appreciated." To which he replied" You learned how to learn that way. There's nothing wrong with that.

Since, I have worked, collaborated, or become involved within the media industry, print/publication, the fine art world, music, and the film industry. I (apparently) have a great knack for networking, being that all the jobs I've had in Dallas I'd never applied for -- they were simply offered to me, based on the reputation I had judiciously and tenaciously built and garnered -- within only 6-9 months -- for my talents, abilities, and how hard I work.

At 20, I was an in-house graphic designer for an award-winning men's skin and shave care line that's sold at Nordstrom, Barneys, and boutiques across the country and around the world. I also worked at a fine art gallery. I kept it running, working 12-14 hour days for free because the owner, an award-winning designer, artist, and publisher, would have lost everything he worked his entire life for.

At 21, I worked as a Casting Assistant and Production Assistant on a national advertising campaign. That same year, I became the youngest Layout Editor of the Dallas Observer, a Village Voice-owned weekly newspaper.

During my past three years in Dallas, I became deeply involved within the music industry in Dallas, Chicago, and NYC -- booking shows, conducting interviews, shooting photography backstage, et cetera.

At 22, I started becoming very involved within the film industry -- designing film posters, logos, and general branding/identity for independent films and a film conference, doing design and marketing and post-production consulting, shooting still photography for feature and short films, doing script supervision for medical industrials, and working with film critics and Sundance and SXSW competition nominated filmmakers.

At 23, I worked closely with the co-founder of the Dallas Art Fair and Chairman of the Board of the American Visionary Museum to help him develop his "life's work," an art graphic novel in addition to my various freelance, which includes the preparatory stages for designing a book for a Harvard Medical professor, designing the conceptual branding for a filmmakers' conference, illustrating the presentation for the groundbreaking server renovation and restructuring for all of Yahoo! that was presented before the dozen or so head software architects/engineers and co-founders.

Within the three months of turning 24, I have been speaking with venture capitalists on future business concepts and [blurb on Barrett's stuff]

My mother was always very adamant about education. It took her seven or eight years to finish her college degree in the Philippines. As the oldest sibling, she had to keep moving back home in order to help support her family. "We had dirt floors. We didn't have shoes growing up. Sometimes we didn't know when we'd get our next meal."

My father was also very adamant about education*. He was 72 years-old when I was born in 1986. My father's last words on his deathbed were "[to my mother]...make sure the girls finish college." His mother went to college in the Victorian era, when it was rare for a woman to get an education.

My two eldest half-siblings hold Ph.D. degrees, former being a minister of the Unitarian Universalist church and wrote a book called America, Fascism and God: Sermons from a Heretical Preacher. The aforementioned latter sibling^1, is an expert witness in addition to his professorship. Third eldest attempted her second masters at Yale; I think she's a midwife on an Indian Reservation right now. The youngest half-sibling is a professional musician. My full-blooded sister went to Wellesley ('05) and has done neuroscience research at Harvard, Princeton, and MIT. My eldest niece (at 30 years-old) does psychometrics and is pursuing her clinical psychology Ph.D at UT.. Her younger sister has two kids. I'm a great-aunt. My youngest niece went to international medical school in Israel and is now fulfilling her residency in Philadelphia as an OB/GYN.

My mother sent my sister and I to private school our whole lives, though I'd left the plush and intellectually fulfilling existence after my sophomore year of college preparatory highschool in order to see the reality outside. Separate of normal teenage angst, I was not necessarily dissatisfied -- I'm a visual communicator. I had to reach my audience. I had to speak and translate the vernacular. I've had to gain real world experience. If not, I don't know how I could help humanity.

I don't need a degree in order to work in graphic design. I've already proven that. I want a degree because I want to learn. I want to hone my skills and have the best mentoring and education available so that, whatever endeavors I pursue in the future, I may best serve humanity to the utmost of my abilities.

My mother's getting old. She's 65. I'd like her to see me graduate, and fulfill my father's last request.

1 Dr. Peter Loehr, Associate Professor, Department of Educational Administration & Supervision, State University of New York - College at Buffalo

* My father's last words were [to my mother] "...make sure the girls finish college". He passed away right after.