We asked some of the brightest folks from within the community to reflect back on their days in school and to share with us a story of when they learned a particularly important or impactful lesson. We’ve shared highlights below.

Shannon Reynolds

As a kid, I remember reading books by Hemingway, Stephen King, and Toni Morrison. I would often play out the scenarios from the books that I read or movies that I had seen and make up my own story from it. Writing my own version of a great story and rereading it when I got bored. Read more>>

Tuduetso Masire

It may sound cliche but the sky really is the limit and I properly learnt that this was an honest and accurate cliche when I got to University of Southern California (USC) for Grad School. Being in an environment where so many of your peers and alumni have accomplished the likes of FedEx office, Salesforce, Box, Riot Games, MySpace, Photoshop, Tinder etc you get into a mindset that pushes you to realise that the fact that you’re in the same classroom means you can achieve the same and more. Read more>>

Jessica Ruby

I worked at the best salon in nyc with all the best hairdressers from around the world. I went thru a 4 year training program, which required you to bring in 4 models a week, 3 cuts and one blowdry. You had to go on the streets of New York and find your models. Read more>>

Xin Sui

During the time I was at the American Film Institute as a film editor, I encountered several short film projects that became a pivotal learning experience for me. We were tasked with creating short films within a tight deadline. These projects seemed to go well at first, but as we got deeper and deeper, I always faced challenges, including creative differences within the team, technical issues, and time constraints. Read more>>

Vernita Glenn-White

I learned an overall lesson from my many years of school. I know a lot of people say they “didn’t learn anything from school” but that’s not entirely true. I’ve learned that many of us need structure, accountability, feedback, observations and “coaching” along the way just like we recieved in school. Being in that type of environment has also taught us that we can do hard things without knowing all the information, when we have big goals we do what we need to do to get it done, and we learned how to take action regardless of fear. Read more>>