It's great to stay in touch with our graduates as many transfer to some great schools to pursue advanced studies. Recently we caught up with SDCC Graphic Design alumni Kathleen Fitzgerald who is pursuing her graduate degree at the prestigious School of Visual Arts New York.

After graduating with a BA in Visual Arts from USD, I was still at a place in my design career that needed clarification. I did not know what direction to take and was eager and desperate to learn more. Along comes San Diego City College. City gave me the incentive to pursue graphic design and an awareness of execution and form that I was lacking. Through course selection, student collaboration, and professor feedback, I learned to combine my innovative and sometimes ambitious conceptual ideas with the power of design, to create harmony between form and content.

City also made it possible for me to reach a point where I was ready to apply for graduate school. Now, in my first year at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan, I am engulfed in my studies and pushing to the extreme, mentally and strategically, to execute my best work. It's hard not to be motivated in a place like SVA, where the people I've studied and followed have become my professors and mentors. Students come from all backgrounds of study and from all over the world. The classes range from conceptual, to 3D, to placing emphasis on craftsmanship, and in turn, all influence each other. This program is, hands down, life-changing.

A favorite course of mine is Stefan Sagmeister's 'Can Design Touch Someone's Heart?' where we are assigned a specific target audience and have to create custom and, more importantly, appropriately designed products that become emotionally impacting.

Go after your dreams and take the time to do so when you need it. Passion and hard work lead to some impressive outcomes, and curiosity and intuition fulfill them.

Here's a link to a recent project she did giving back to the NY City bus drivers that was featured on CNN's ireport. Love this project...check it out.