By Kate Wallace
When Jonalyn Lahr stopped by SCTCC for the Open House in Fall 2023, the building looked a lot different than when she was a student. She mentioned that it looks beautiful now, and well-kept and clean. She needed to orient herself a little bit, but you could tell that she was taking it all in stride—and that is a sentiment that has guided her to where she is now.
And while she would advise people to take their time in choosing what they want to do with their professional lives and make sure they’re taking the right path, when she started at then-SCTC in the mid-00s, she saw the Advertising program and knew immediately that that was where she belonged.
“It was like magic,” she said with a smile.
The atmosphere at the college was welcoming, and she really liked the smaller classes. As someone who gets distracted easily, Lahr appreciated the attention she was able to get instead of getting lost in bigger classes. Part of that was also the instructors, Jeff, Eldon, and Penny.
“Everybody’s so good at what they do,” Lahr said about the instructors. “They have the perfect knowledge so that you knew you were getting the best knowledge from someone who has been through it and understands it.”
Currently, Lahr works at White Box Advertising in St. Cloud, where she’s the Creative Coordinator. She and her husband actually went to SCTCC together, and now they live in Sauk Rapids. She said that occasionally she’ll see her classmates or instructors in the community, and they share updates of how they’ve been since their time together in college. She embraces that experience in the community, and she might not have had if she hadn’t gone to SCTCC.
The magic she felt when she saw Advertising as an option for a degree hasn’t gone anywhere; the path Lahr took was right for her, and you can see it in the way her eyes shine when she talks about SCTCC. After how welcomed she felt during her time here, she wants to make sure other people do what’s right for them as well: “Do what you want. Especially this time in life, people get caught up in what they should be doing. Pursue what your needs are and what you want to do.”