Student snapshot

How do you know if your education will translate into career success? That’s the question fine arts major Ashr Burgess was asking himself as he prepared for his final semester at East Carolina University.

Burgess pursued photography during his time at ECU and has an interest in alternative processing, a more creative approach to the medium. With his sights set on a December graduation, he wanted a chance to step into the art world he hoped to pursue outside of school.

So when he received an email about the State Employees’ Credit Union Public Fellows Internship program from a professor, he jumped at the chance to apply for the position with the Greenville Museum of Art.

He won the fellowship and went to work using his talent and expertise by photographing events, tours and artwork at the museum.

“I’m trained in the fine art way. I work in controlled environments with portraits where I’m thinking out those shots and can control the lighting. It’s very different from doing an event where you don’t have a lot of control and you have to move around to try to get then shots,” Burgess said.

The opportunity also gave him the perspective he needed to follow his dream.

“Without this opportunity, I never would have proven to myself that I actually know what I’m doing,” he said. “That has been the most rewarding thing — getting the chance to see that my education mattered, and it actively made me a better person. I’m not just throwing money away to say I have an art degree.”