Word Count: 419

Feature Story: Joan Verla

By Olivia Ferrington

Wayne State University

Com 2100, Jan 23, 2017

Joan Verla is a senior level public relations student at Wayne State. She is in her

fifties, and lives in Lavonia, Michigan. She has three children and for leisure enjoys running

and doing art -related activities.

Joan Verla is on the path to earning her second college degree. Her first degree is a

bachelors in fine arts. She studied at Schoolcraft for two years and then transferred to Wayne

State to finish her first bachelors and begin her second.

Since finishing her fine arts degree and moving on to PR, she stays very involved in

the art department. She holds a full time job in the community engagement sector of the

department and is very active in social media with three different twitter and Facebook

accounts.

She is a part of ArtCorpsDetroit, an organization initiated by Wayne States art

department. The idea is to provide art-based programs to people in the Detroit area, offering

them experience, inspiration, and the ability to help revive their community. Joan sets up

projects through ArtCorpsDetroit with nearby outreach programs in effort to increase

involvement and awareness of art in ways such as making murals.

Joan also spends time looking for art project grants and takes part in the conferences

within the art department. Joan finds joy in her job and appreciates the ability to bring

enlightenment and passion into the lives of Detroit residents. She stated that most of the

members of the art program are teenagers regarding them she hopes to bring in some kind of

skill that they can do at home, in the community, or make a job out of the process.
 Though this class is just a prerequisite course for her degree, it does have a large

impact on her big picture. Taking this class, getting a degree, and furthering her career,

education and own life story is relevant and worthy of being news. The process is what makes

Joans story relevant.

According to Forbes, based off of a survey done on

strongernation.luminafoundation.org, only 40% of adults over 25 hold a higher education of

at least an associates degree. Joan is in her fifties and working towards having her second

bachelors degree- presumably, the statistic of adults over 25 with two bachelors degrees is

much less than the whole 40%. This alone could make Joans relevance of being here even

more important. With the work that she does now and plans to do upon holding this second

degree, she is an asset to the art department and university itself.

--30--
Citations

A STRONGER NATION. (n.d.). Retrieved January 23, 2017, from

http://strongernation.luminafoundation.org/report/2016/

Kelly, A. (2015, April 28). The Neglected Majority: What Americans Without A College

Degree Think About Higher Education, Part 1. Retrieved January 23, 2017, from

http://www.forbes.com/sites/akelly/2015/04/28/the-neglected-majority-what-americans-

without-a-college-degree-think-about-higher-education-part-1/2/#7b66c9ba2cc2