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Kelly Johnson

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Kelly Johnson Location: London, England

Time Abroad: Fall 2009

Major: Marketing

I'm a Marketing major with an Art minor, and I've always had an eye for fashion. My mom and sister pretty much panic when I'm not around on a shopping trip, and I'm often caught ogling over runway photos on style.com. I've got my eyes set on the fashion industry when I graduate, so I thought what better place to study abroad than in one of the four major fashion epicenters of the world? To my surprise, though, I found that London is much more than that. London was a huge cultural center, full of some of the most amazing and creatively diverse people I've met in my life. I met girls who lived in leather jackets and didn't wear pants (literally... no pants, ever) and boys who wore leggings, fur jackets, and nail polish. I met young artists with incredible visions for something uniquely NEW, and students with entirely different views of people and the world than I am accustomed to.

Living in London for three months was truly a life changing experience. I got to intern in the buying/merchandising department for a major British fashion label, French Connection, which was an amazing opportunity for me to experience the fashion industry first hand. Upon my return home, I've become amazingly more independent, and I actually have more of an idea of what I want to do after I graduate. Although I'm a small town girl from the Midwest, I discovered that I absolutely love the big city and thrive on the fast pace and excitement of it. London is definitely not a place for the timid - it's a gigantic city that's full of interesting people from all over the world, and always buzzing with activity. At the University of Westminster, I got the chance to take classes both in and outside of my major - including classes in fashion (forecasting trends) and the media (and its impact on society) - and I took maybe the best class of my college career (Intro to Branding) that really helped me figure out exactly what kind of field I might excel in.

Now that I'm back home, I miss London and all the people that I met while I was there terribly, but I'm extremely stoked about being a peer advisor for study abroad. Every student who wants to go abroad should have the chance to have an experience that will, like mine, help shape them as a person, and I hope that I'll be able to help DU students find a way to get there!