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I was an admissions counselor at Salve Regina University in Newport, Rhode Island, one of the most gorgeous campuses in the country. For many years, I had been given the chance to help underrepresented students find an opportunity to access a college education. Reading student essays was an opportunity to glimpse into the window of their souls. I was able to learn about their greatest triumphs, the largest obstacles they’d navigated, and life experiences that manifested their futures. In my seventh year of recruiting students from around the country, I was given the opportunity to build our international recruitment program.

I immediately went out and bought a camera. More specifically, my first ‘big kid’ camera.

I knew absolutely nothing about photography. Back in high school, I took a film photography class where we learned how to use the dark room and develop pictures the old fashioned way. I lost a lot of rolls of film because I kept messing it up. Honestly, I was kind of a disaster. Fast forward to now, and here I was, years later, buying my very first digital DSLR. I had no idea what I was doing, but I was determined to figure it out, especially since I had this once-in-a-lifetime chance to meet incredible students all over the world.

Several years and 29 different countries later, I managed to teach myself photography in between many layovers, bus trips in between visits to high schools, and by taking a whole lot of terrible photos. Some of them were truly awful. But there were some amazing ones too. Somewhere along the way, I actually got pretty good at this!

Before I knew it, this impulse purchase turned into a hobby. From there, it turned into a whole side hustle. Now, I get to capture stories for a lot more people! I hope you enjoy the photos!