“I really needed a job as soon as I graduated and my instructor Bob Clark told me the Franklin Press was going to be at the fair,” said Heim, a May graduate of SCC’s advertising and graphic design program. “So during my lunch I went to the fair and found Rachel Hoskins there from the Franklin Press. I’m so glad I did ‘cause she told me they had an opening in my field!

“She asked me if I had a portfolio and I told her, ‘Sure.’ Then she asked me to bring it with me Friday for an interview at the newspaper office. Now I really didn’t have my portfolio all together but I knew I could pull something together in a hurry,” said Heim, excited about her first professional job interview.

“What a sense of accomplishment," Heim said. “I’ve been paying for college and taking graphic arts ‘cause that’s really what I love. So to get a job in my field really makes it all pay off.

“When they showed me my desk, my big computer and my chair I couldn’t believe, ‘That’s all mine!’”

Beats skating at Sonic, she said.

But that job at Sonic helped put her through school and opened her eyes to the wide world of graphic design.

“I noticed Sonic’s ads. Then every where I went I’d compare their ads to other ads, looking at layout and graphics, text and fonts, color - what worked, what didn’t,” said Heim, who decided right away that’s the business she wanted to be in.

SCC advertising and graphic design instructors Bob Clark and Bob Keeling encouraged Heim in her career pursuit and helped develop her skills, especially layout and color schemes and expertise in the latest computer software.

“The Bobs were so supportive of me and I liked the small classes and personal attention,” she said. “Plus, they taught me so much above and beyond graphic design. They taught me about working with customers and how a big part of my job would be satisfying customers’ needs.”

“The Bobs taught her well,” said Franklin Press publisher Hoskins. “Mary hit the floor running. She had all the skills needed for our job. In fact, her skills are top-notch.”

Hoskins said she was impressed with Heim’s work ethic, too.

“When we had an opening at another one of our papers I asked her if she didn’t have a friend who needed a job,” said Hoskins. “Turns out she did.”

Hoskins hired that friend- Jordan Stevens of Sylva, also a May graduate of SCC’s advertising and graphic design program.

“Mary and Jordan are both working out very nicely for us and hopefully we’re working out for them, too,” said Hoskins.

“I love how I get to be creative on my job,” said Heim. “One week I might be working on a promotion for a golf tournament and the next week it’s a bakery having a sale.”

Her biggest challenge, Heim said, is “working on a black and white newsprint ad where you can’t use color for effect.”

Currently she is designing the cover of the Press’s full-color Information Please magazine.

“I like taking pictures and I not only get to design the cover, but I get to use my own photograph, too,” said Heim, who is definitely glad she chose the Job Fair over lunch that life-changing day at SCC.

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