Transfer student Veronica Holmes may be new to our campus, but missing out on two years of college life in the SEC may not be so bad after all. She got to spend that last two years going to fashion school in LA and interning in West Hollywood. HCSC was dying to know more about her life, her school and her internship in Los Angeles so we sat down with Veronica to get the scoop.
HCSC: First, can you just tell us a little bit about what you were doing in LA?
Veronica Holmes: So, after high school I decided to give up dancing and touring with different companies due to 3 past knee surgeries and decided to move to Los Angeles for school. I went to the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising as a Merchandise Marketing student right in Downtown Los Angeles. I started with an internship in August at a PR Firm in West Hollywood and by the time I started classes in October I had a full time job with the company dOMAIN Public Relations working on their celebrity team. I was taking 7 classes and working full time until I finished my Associate of the Arts degree this past March. I made the decision to transfer to a University so that I can continue to grad school after I complete undergrad. Here I am a double major in Broadcast Journalism and Marketing with a double minor in Sports Entertainment and Political Science.
HCSC: How did you get involved with that PR firm?
VH: My aunt is the director of marketing at QVC in West Chester, PA so she had gotten me in contact with their PR Firm because they were based out of Los Angeles. So when I moved out there I was interviewed and got the internship then they decided to promote me before school got too hectic.
HCSC: Where did you move from and what made you pick LA?
VH: I moved from Cape May, New Jersey and I decided to move to LA for school basically because I wanted to get far away from home at the time. I was a professional dancer since the age of 6 and after my injury and surgeries in high school I realized that I didn’t want to dance for the rest of my life so I dropped my scholarships and decided to apply to fashion schools.
HCSC: What made you want to go to fashion school?
VH: Sophomore year of high school I tore ever ligament in my knee, which took me out of dance for about a year and a half. So with 3 knee surgeries I had to find a hobby that wasn’t dance or physical therapy so I started to sew. I started making just small things and then it turned into me making dance costumes for my studio and all my prom dresses. I was not mentally stable to continue to dance I had a very low weight requirement and knew I couldn’t keep beating my body up. I was offered 4 full rides to dance at schools but I decided to apply to FIDM as a back up plan so I knew I wasn’t stuck. I didn’t take school very seriously back in high school because of my dance teachers basically running my small town. I was never required to go to school so I would go to the studio and practice or go to NYC for auditions instead of school. So when thinking of an alternative other than dance, fashion was the only thing that made sense in my head. Once I moved to LA I knew I didn’t want to be a designer so I switched my degree to marketing before classes even began.
HCSC: What do you like about the fashion industry?
VH: What I love about the fashion industry is the constant change, it will always be a very up and coming industry for he sole reason that consumers’ styles will never stay the same. Learning new concepts and the ways the industry stays up to date was amazing and an experience I couldn’t have gotten elsewhere
HCSC: When you decided you wanted to transfer to a University, what made you choose South Carolina?
VH: Long story short my dad had been sick during the time I was in LA, so there was a lot of added stress being 3,000 miles away from home. I knew after my first year at FIDM I wanted to transfer to a school that was a big university and that had a graduate program. So I applied to schools in California but then after my dad’s heart attack I made the decision I wanted to be driving distance from NJ. I didn’t want to live in the northeast and be completely consumed with family and friends from high school, so I decided to look in the south. I originally was going to go to Clemson and be a rally cat, but last minute I decided to apply to USC and loved everything about Columbia and the academic programs I applied to be in.
HCSC: What do you want to do once you graduate?
VH: After I graduate grad school I am hoping to either work for a marketing firm, one like the public relations firm I’ve already worked for or work in sports writing. I would be very happy with either and I see myself moving back to the northeast unless a job offer takes me somewhere else.