My Journey of Self-Discovery and Transformation
Throughout my childhood, I was always recognized as the "artistic one" within my family. As a child, I would sit at the kitchen table, where my life was consumed by making at-home commerical videos until my mom insisted it was time for bed. Unaware of my passions at the time, my personality embodied that of an artistic soul. I was immersed in a world of creativity where my imagination thrived. Growing up, I challenged myself to push the boundaries of all of my projects and always chase after a challenge.
Painting and teaching myself piano brought me peace at a young age. It always seemed that I was completely submerged in my creative hobbies and I loved it. From trying to master the guitar alone in my room or to pouring heartfelt yet meaningless, made-up stories on paper, my parents always told me how much they loved my eagerness to want to create something new. With every passing day, my love for my natural talents deepened, and my creative mind turned like wheels on a bike. There was no stopping.
For eighteen years, my artistic prowess served as an escape from the challenges I faced during my childhood. Being a military child, my life deviated from what many consider "normal." Despite the hardships that came with having both of my parents in the military, I cherished the incredible stories and experiences that blessed me with a unique upbringing. The cross-country road trips exposed me to different cultures, leading way for my mind's ability to create the most beautiful drawings and paint the most beautiful ideas. Whether residing in Colorado, Maryland, or New Jersey, each relocation allowed me to reveal my passion even more and learn new things from each area I lived.
Throughout my grade school years, I often found myself lost in a notebook, filling its pages with whimsical stories or doodling tiny sketches during those monotonous classes. While advanced art and photography classes allowed me to express my creativity, it was in language and literature classes that I devoted most of my time in high school. Although, advanced english courses came naturally to me somehow, as I was presented with the several projects, composition, and even comprehension—they were all in my wheelhouse. In my final years of high school, I took on the challenge of AP language, literature and computer science classes, which humbled me quickly and enhanced both my quick learning skills and creative thoughts. Those classes I received 3's on the exams and was able to use as college credit, I was so proud of myself. Those demanding classes always remained incredibly valuable to my academic career, offering the challenge I craved.
Upon graduating from high school in 2019, I embarked on a new chapter of my life at the University of Tampa. As my journey began, I immediately felt a sense of identity loss. It seemed as though a profound case of writer's block had taken hold of my life. My creative-self went missing. Choosing a major became a daunting task, as I struggled to muster any genuine interest and found my mind going blank. The College of Arts, while seemingly fitting, didn't entice me because I yearned for a challenge outside my comfort zone. I felt this part of my life was a huge grow spurt for me and I felt lost. I was attending a business school in Florida in hopes for it all to make sense. As the months went on, I was surrounded by business students and making friends with those who knew their path because it was a path taken once before by their parents. The thought of a business major all of a sudden did not sound too bad. Though business seemed enticing, I waited before I declared a major just to be sure. While I pondered my decision, I continued to take courses along the undecided degree guide. This included several advanced writing courses, math, and basic general educational study classes. Eventually my writing skills became so refined to a college level, one of my professors asked for permission to publish my work in one of his blog posts - it was unbelievable to me. While I enjoyed contributing to others and expanding my knowledge, I still felt something was missing.
Jade Delvalle, B.S. Marketing
Leveraging my creative thinking to inspire others is what sparked me to make the big jump into finally declaring my major. I finally decided to declare a major in marketing and I could not be more excited, but my only thought was where do I start? During the rest of my time in college, I believed that having everything figured out was essential for success. However, I soon realized that this couldn't be further from the truth. While my sophomore year of college was coming to an end, I received an opportunity from a friend who recently graduated from the University of Central Florida. With little to no marketing or advertising knowledge, they asked me to create a brand image for Cat Daddy Jewelry. This project's opportunity started to fuel my mind again. I was inspired. I used myself as a model while using the timer feature on my Canon camera. The owners of Cat Daddy Jewelry fell in-love with the idea and used it as their first product launch. While granted this opportunity, I learned a valuable lesson amongst many during my 4.5 years in college. Life teaches us valuable lessons through tough experiences but never give up.
Approaching my final years of college, I eagerly took on different projects to explore and strengthen my passion for marketing. The majority of this portfolio is made up of exactly that. It wasn't until my first couple of opportunities, that is showcased in my projects section, that made me start growing curious about my future endeavors. Working in PR was all new to me, and while in college I yearned to be part of the advertising field the more I learned. My last semester of my senior year in college, I decided now that I was working part time in PR, I would take an advertising elective course. Dr. Monahan, my creative professor was the reason I fell in-love with advertising. Even though I may not have discovered it with enough time to take more college courses, it taught me so much more about marketing that I did not know. With that in mind, my goal is to find an occupational dream where every day I feel I learned something for myself and have made a valuable contribution to others. My future endeavors are to continue engaging in growing projects along the way to success. As I continue on my journey, I tend to remind myself often that my creativity had never truly left me during those difficult discoveries—it simply needed a spark of inspiration: a new challenge.
After graduating college in May of 2024, I now start my journey with a B.S. Marketing degree from the University of Tampa. With my deep passion for marketing with a specialty in content creation, I hope to inspire others with what I create. My journey brings me immense joy in sharing what creative knowledge I have that can contribute to promoting future products. My ultimate goal is to showcase the power of creativity in shaping a product by building a strong and trendy brand identity. By sharing my story, I hope to help others find that spark within themselves during moments when they feel lost like I once did. Success may not come overnight but it teaches us the importance of the journey.