Ashley Loudan

Shortly after beginning my new course of study, my way of thinking began to change. For the first time, I was actually thinking instead of getting stuck in the medical realm of "critical thinking" that my brain could not successfully process. And, during the last three semesters as an undergraduate, I was honored to make the Dean's List at the university for academic excellence for the first time in my academic career. 

 

My life completely changed the day I became an English major. Instead of feeling like an outsider bombarded with medical calculations and clinical procedures, I now fit perfectly into the mold of what I was born to do. I constantly ignore the chatter about how writing isn't a "practical" career and that writers will always "struggle" to put food on the table. What people fail to realize is that writing literally opens up endless possibilities entirely at your fingertips; incredible possibilities await in bigger cities that can open your eyes to the world. But, I digress.

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Right before I turned 23, I became an environmentalist. Again, I had another "thinking" transformation. It is the funniest thing to say that this transformation came from a show about vampires, but it is the truth. The Vampire Diaries actor, Ian Somerhalder is solely responsible for giving me a wake-up call. On Twitter, I started paying attention to what he was saying, consequently learning the truth about important environmental issues that are creating more problems for our planet. Ian talked and I listened. 

 

By the time my final semester came at Shepherd University, I was faced with developing a Senior Capstone Project of my choosing. Of course, it had to incorporate the knowledge I had gained in my studies, but what about the new environmental information I was learning about every day? Originally, I was going to work on a fiction story I am eventually planning to turn into a novel, but then again, I wanted to make other people aware of a particular environmental issue our country was widely debating about at the time: The Keystone Pipeline expansion project. With the help of one of my professors, Dr. Wenger, I created a project centered around this issue and specifically, the rhetoric coming from both sides of the argument debating it. 

 

In May 2012, I graduated Shepherd University with a Bachelor of Arts in English and Creative Writing.

 

Later that year in December, I became a volunteer for the Ian Somerhalder Foundation as the Environment Division Editor, a position I held for 4 years. Our mission as an organization was to: "Empower, educate, and collaborate with people and projects to positively impact the planet and its creatures." I worked with an incredible team of individuals who brought their talents and knowledge from all parts of the world. We worked on numerous projects that not only educated the public we were reaching out to, but also made a positive impact on the environment.

 

After graduation, I was advised to build a portfolio for both my academic and freelance work. For the next three years, I created a compilation of my best work assembled for prospective jobs in the future. Every piece included in my portfolio I am very proud of, and will keep updated regularly.

 

So please, feel free to look around and browse my work. If you have any questions or comments, please contact me.

 

Lastly, thank you for taking the time to read this and visit the site. It is greatly appreciated.

 

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                   Sincerely,

                                                                    Ashley