As an outsider, breaking into an industry can often seem like an impossible challenge and so we reached out to some very generous folks who agreed to share their stories of how they broke into their respective industries.

Rebecca Voelpel

After dancing professionally and in college, I knew that post-grad dance or movement would be a part of my life – I just wasn’t sure what that looked like. During my senior year of college, I began taking Barre classes at a local studio and knew I found what my I was looking for and what my body needed. After graduation, I entered the workforce, and like most post-grad students, I thought…is this it? Wake up exhausted, Read more>>

Danielle Barnes

I was in my last semester of nursing school, and I was really excited about graduating and starting my career as a nurse. Many of my classmates were applying to the same hospital, and I was looking forward to continuing to start my nursing journey with some familiar people. We’d gone through 5 challenging semesters of nursing school together, so many of my classmates were like family to me. About a month before graduation, I interviewed for a job and felt confident about it. Read more>>

Samantha Kelly

As a doula, there are a lot of different paths that you can take, whether that is working on your own, working in a collective, or working for an agency. I knew that I wanted to operate and own my own business, but I also knew that I really wanted to work in a community, and have the opportunity to build my knowledge base with other doulas. When I first trained as a doula, I found a fantastic community of doulas called Central Texas Doula Association, and through that group I was able to meet and connect with so many amazing birth professionals. In CTDA, I met Ciarra Morgan, Read more>>

Kiki Jones

My first fitness job was through Health Commons with the help of my mentor/friend Rhonda. She is one of reasons I became a Fitness Instructor. I had been practicing a dance workout routine to Chris Brown- Turn Up the Music for weeks! I had to make sure it was good enough to bring to Rhonda’s attention because when she teaches her energy is always Top Tier, so I wanted to make sure I did a great job. Read more>>