It was my sophomore year, and the first day of a class called Professional Portfolio Development. The professor informed us that we would be participating in mock interviews: first with our fellow classmates, then with some of PWID’s board members, both on the phone and in person. I was 17 years old. I had only ever worked online, aside from my job at a bakery. I felt about as inexperienced as one could be.

“You and your partner will be creating a cookbook in print form and web form with Adobe InDesign,” my Professor told us as I sat in my Production Tools and Document Design class. The first time I opened InDesign, I stared at the blank document and felt overwhelmed by the huge number of tools that stared back at me. I wondered how I’d ever learn to use the program in several weeks and actually create a cookbook at the same time.

In that moment as I stood in front of my professor, I knew I was over-committing. He offered me the opportunity to work on a professional client project. This specific client was the nursing department at Cedarville University, and I would be creating a template for their quarterly newsletter.