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This year’s Valedictorian is a social media influencer who used her business education to build her following to over half a million, while the College’s first Salutatorian parlayed an internship into an E-commerce position.

���Ҵ�ý���߹ۿ����’s Class of 2020 may not get to walk across a stage to accept their diplomas until the fall, but two graduating seniors recently found out that when the time comes, they’ll have even more reasons to celebrate.

The College recently announced that Paige Secosky of Monroeville, Pennsylvania is this year’s Valedictorian and Shannon Andrews of Liberty Lake, Washington is Salutatorian.

PAIGE SECOSKY

Paige earned an impressive 3.99 GPA over her four years at LIM. Additionally, during her academic career, she managed numerous successful personal social media platforms, which she describes as, “my full-time job while being a student.”

Paige started her popular  before college and grew it from 200,000 to over 500,00 followers while at LIM.

She says, “LIM allowed me to take my social media career more seriously and treat it as a real business. The College let me complete an internship with my YouTube channel. At the time, I had around 200,000 subscribers, and I wanted to have more structure with my channel. LIM gave me a mentor, (Career Coach) Eurydice Sanchez, who I met with weekly and planned out my goals with.”

Paige notes that she also received valuable advice on her business from faculty member Dr. Kenneth Kambara. She went on to complete two other social media internships, including one for the experiential agency WAYV, and was the first student to serve as celebrity host of LIM’s annual Fashion Show.

As for her long-term career goals, Paige says she wants to continue creating digital content that inspires and educates people on ways to make the fashion industry more sustainable and environmentally responsible. In fact, her passion for sustainability was kindled by an LIM course on the subject.

She says, “That course truly opened my eyes to how we need to make a change in our industry. It really changed my life and how I think about things now… All of my professors at LIM had a great impact on me during my college journey, and I am so thankful that I had the opportunity to have such knowledgeable professionals devote their time to me.”

SHANNON ANDREWS

With a cumulative GPA of 3.98, Shannon Andrews is the first Salutatorian in ���Ҵ�ý���߹ۿ����’s 81-year history.

A member of the College’s Fashion Scholars honors program, Shannon served as Secretary of the Delta Mu Delta International Honor Society, Marketing Director for The Lexington Line student magazine, and she was a member of the Philanthropy Club during her freshman year.

Shannon completed her bachelor’s degree in just three years, and credits Associate Dean of Academic Affairs Patricia Fitzmaurice for providing crucial support during her LIM journey.

“From helping me strategize how I would graduate a year early to simply just being able to have real-life conversations with her, I could not have done this without her,” Shannon notes.

Shannon completed four industry internships while at LIM, including a Senior Co-op as a Business Analyst at , a brand that creates sustainable women’s apparel with equal emphasis on design and performance. Upon graduation, Shannon will continue in a full-time, permanent position managing ADAY’s e-Commerce site.

When it comes to her long-term career goals, Shannon says, “I'd like to work my way up to an executive-level position, start and sell businesses, develop data-driven growth strategies, and most importantly, be the leading force in creating my own schedule and workflow.”

She continues, “Even though LIM is fashion-focused, I still have a business degree and see myself applying this to various industries in the future -- including wellness, tech, and finance. I also want to continue to further my self-led education in computer science and merge this with my existing knowledge of business and data analysis. I’m truly hopeful that I will never stop learning.”