Meet Jen Pepper—MFA student

Hello my Name is… Jen Pepper!
I am a graphic designer and wedding stationer living on the coast of New England with my husband and our corgi. I’ve spent my design career branding small businesses, designing catalogs, creating a line of home goods, and illustrating crazy-cool wedding invitations.

Why I decided to go back to grad school…

I decided to pursue my MFA in design so that I can pass on my skills and knowledge by becoming a college professor in graphic design.

Tell us about/describe your KUCD MFA journey thus far…

I am thrilled to be on the MFA journey, and it already has made me look at life a little differently. There are only so many hours in a given week, so what I choose to take on has to be worth it. Finding a work-life balance has always been a little tricky. Add school into the mix, and it has forced me to think more about what I can fit on my plate, and what I can feel good about declining.

Journey week is the first week of the semester, and it’s a little bit of a mystery coming into the program. Will I be the oldest person there? (our group is well balanced with those who are starting their design careers and those who have been in the business for a while) Will I be intimidated by other people’s design skills? (everyone has their strengths and weaknesses, don’t compare yourself to other people. Stretch your abilities and yourself!) Will I survive this? (Yes. You may be exhausted, but you will love it!) Think of it as a process that will guide you to what you will ultimately be working on for the rest of the semester.

Throw caution to the wind, let your guard down and get to know the people who make up your crazy little pack of grad students. You’ll laugh, you might cry (totally cool if you do!), and you might end up telling these people way more about yourself that you ever thought you would! It’s kind of like starting a secret club with a random group of strangers who end up having way more in common than you thought possible. There will be late nights, there may be early mornings, but most of all, it will be a process that you need to trust.

What has been your favorite project to date? Please tell me why.

During journey week, one of the concepts I ended up exploring was the overwhelming popularity of making products pink to appeal to women. I don’t like the color pink and it got me asking, why does this happen so often? The history behind the color pink being for girls and blue being for boys is a contrived one. At one point it was dependent upon which department store you shopped in. This semester I’ve been writing an article that showcases a few additional ways women are often marketed to, why they don’t work, and what could be done to correct this behavior. I’ll also be examining the packaging of body products that are sold to men and women with different packaging. I hope to determine that gender-neutral packaging would attract more consumers.

Fun fact about you.

When I’m not stuck at my desk working, you might find me at a local bar hosting pub quiz or playing Ms. Pacman. I wear flip flops until it snows. I am also mildly obsessed with…Polar Seltzer (Yes, to Cherry lime-ade, and a hard pass on plain lemon). Walt Disney World (if you ever need an unofficial tour guide, I’m all yours). Those cheese and meat gift trays that appear during the holidays (who designs those geometric arrangements, and can I please shadow you for a week?) And binge watching repeats of Parks and Recreation.

Meet Sarah Sterner-Hausknecht—MFA student

Hello my Name is… Sarah Sterner-Hausknecht!

Hello! My name is Sarah Sterner-Hausknecht. I know. It’s a crazy long name. My name, like my life, used to be simple…and then I got married. Let’s back up a little. I discovered not only a love for art, but also a sense of belonging, during an advanced art class in high school. As someone who thrives on and enjoys being busy, I was involved in a lot of activities and had many friends and close acquaintances within the groups of people I participated in those activities with. But I never quite felt right and was often plagued with a feeling of not “belonging”. That all changed as soon as I stepped foot in an art class. I immediately felt welcomed and that I was “home” and had found my place. Closer to graduation my art teacher urged me to pursue Graphic Design. I started out at a local community college and then transferred into the undergraduate KUCD Design program at Kutztown University. My experience in the undergraduate KUCD program solidified my love and passion for design. I enjoyed every moment of the “design-butt-kicking” and plentiful “creative-boot-camp” sessions. Upon graduation I freelanced at a couple of companies and then accepted a full-time position with an in-house design group. Fast-forward 10-years and this is where it starts to get crazy Got married and had my first daughter. I was un-prepared for the conflict of feelings I had of being torn between my love and passion for design and for my newborn baby girl. I drug myself back to work after 3 months of enjoying non-stop, blissful, snuggle moments. I felt as though my heart wasn’t with design anymore. After 6-months, I took a leap off the cliff of comfortability and quit my full-time job in order to spend more time with my family. Then I missed art. I decided to start my own freelance-design business which quickly became a happy balance that consisted of my love for design AND snuggles with my daughter. The move away from my full-time career also opened my schedule up to include teaching a communication design course at a community college. I discovered that I loved inspiring a passion for design into others as much (perhaps even more) as I enjoyed creating. A love for teaching became the initial catalyst in my decision to go back to school and apply to Kutztown University’s M.F.A. program in Communication Design.

Why I decided to go back to grad school…

Over time, my career journey has grown and taken various paths that has led me to KUCD’s MFA program. I decided that if I were to enter the full-time workforce again, I wanted it to be teaching full-time, which will require the next level degree. I also found my freelance career becoming stagnant, stale and uninspired. I am attending KUCD’s MFA program to build on my teaching capabilities, to re-fresh the perspective that I bring to my freelance business and also for myself. I am now a mother of two amazingly magical daughters. Outside of art & design, they are my entire world and I am their primary caregiver. I find that I give so much of myself as well. Attending the program is as much for me for self-care reasons as it is for growing my freelance business and teaching careers.

Tell us about/describe your KUCD MFA journey thus far…

I feel like the squeal of joy, that emitted from me on day I received my acceptance into the KUCD MFA program, could have been heard around the world. Excitement quickly turned to panic as I pondered what would be instore for me during that first Journey Week of the program. Journey Week was AMAZING! Emotionally it was a roller-coaster journey from anticipation to defeat; enthusiasm to self-doubt. Journey Week can be described as an intensive of collaboration between other students enrolled in the program and the professors. They are there for you every step of the way, supporting and inspiring your work. There are deadlines (homework) every day. But this is to ensure the proper amount of exploration and growth of your work while on-campus. That work will act as the springboard for your work starting week two. You can expect a tour of the Sharadin Art building and all their printing/fabrication capabilities. During journey week you can get to know your peers, collaborate, and experience a letterpress adventure where you take a hands-on approach learning the basics of how to set type and work a table-top letterpress.

What has been your favorite project to date? Please tell me why.

I am very excited about the projects I am currently working on. Shortly before starting journey week I became sick with Lyme Disease which inspired me to formulate a field guide approach to identify and understand common vector-born diseases regionally. I also plan to include an “on-the-go” kit that will have a quick reference card, materials to repel insects and treat bites, and tick extraction tools (featured for this region). Another project I’m working on is a “Try Kit” that parents can use to work with their children to get comfortable with and celebrate failures. Experiencing failure fosters growth for success and instilling that concept in our children can be beneficial to how they approach failure in the future. The kit will contain literature for parents and chart style positive reinforcement for each time your child continues to try a task, whether they have failed or not, by earning stickers and badges. There will also be trading cards to explore with your child that each feature well known people throughout history that experienced failure in order to achieve that great accomplishments your child may be learning about in school.

Fun fact about you.
In general, I consider myself not to be very interesting. I purposefully keep myself very busy, constantly on-the-go, and absolutely positively cannot live without CHOCOLATE! I practiced ballet for 26 years of my life and of the many activities I have tried and practiced throughout my life the ones I continue to enjoy doing are basket weaving and practicing calligraphy.