Alumni - Page Two - Where Are They Now?
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Jessie Seagren
Jessie Seagren came to our academy almost three years ago and graduated from the Advanced Professional Pet Stylist Program! We recently got in touch with Jessie to see how she was making her mark in the grooming world. Jessie came to America grooming with one thing in mind, she loves animals. not being very confident with her people skills, Jessie decided that a career with animals might be the best choice for her. When she first came to the academy she was nervous, but immediately fell in love with morning lectures. “ Not sure I had a favorite part( or class) as I liked almost everything, yes, I am weird that way and enjoyed the lectures as well!!!.” She excelled in scissoring as most of our students do, taking the time to learn correctly and with accuracy.
After graduation, Jessie moved back home to Northern California and within three days of sending out her resumes, she was offered three positions. The one she chose Le Pooch, is still her place of employment today.
Jessie has since been working to better her skills, learn new tips and tricks and to become faster at her scissor work. Learning new styles like the “fox cut” at her salon Jessie has become a very motivated stylist!
Jessie is currently working on purchasing her first house, and gaining more clients with innovative ideas and interpretation of styles! If you would like to become a great stylist with a career for a lifetime, contact American Grooming Academy!
Austin Sanchez
Austin loves Labradors. LOVES them. He currently has two of his own. Being a student at AGA has been easy for him. “Instantly I knew he was smart, he had the right answers for my questions on the first day of classes”. Instructor Kat Marchant. Austin learns quickly and is very good at bathing any size pet. He bathed his pets at home for years. Austin's favorite dog to the bath is a labrador, no surprise but also, “Sometimes a Poodle, they just stand so nicely for everything!” He also did very well learning how to complete proper sanitary clips on long coated breeds, “ It was easy for me to use the clippers because I always cut my dad's hair.”
Like every student at AGA there is always something equally as hard to learn as the easier things. For Austin, its scissoring, which is not uncommon for new grooming students of any age, gender or background. Scissor is an art and like any good artist, Austin has a plan for mastering this skill, “Practice, I practice scissor motions while I watch T.V, Practice makes perfect.” We asked Austin how he would get his best (guy) friend to give AGA a try, “I would say if you want to do something where you can earn money for your pockets and do something productive just try it!”
Austin and his partner have started Baxter's Mobile Grooming Salon, with namesake boxer Baxter in Tow! Loving his mobile unit is an understatement. Dustin loves making his own schedule!
Jessica Larios-Young
Making a change for the better, pushing yourself and taking the chance to change your outlook on life are all things that potential students worry about. Jessica Larios-Young was no different, but she jumped in feet first, so this month we are showing this graduate some love!
Jessica is a mom. She’s a wife. She has a busy life. She stayed at home to raise her kids but knew that she needed more. Jessica came to American Grooming Academy looking for things most people look for in an education. Can she come and still be able to take care of her kids? Could she afford tuition? What was she going to do after she graduated? Here at American Grooming Academy, it's our job to make sure changing your life is as easy as possible. We have flexible schedules, financing and a curriculum that adapts to your learning style. For all these reasons Jessica choose us for her education and we could not be more proud of this graduate!
Jessica has had her own mobile grooming business for a few months now. “The Sparkling Paw” mobile pet grooming. We wanted to know what has been the best part so far- “There are a lot of great things, First is being my own boss, I love that! Next would be that I can make my own schedule, if I need to be somewhere for my kids I can, and lastly the personal experience with my customers, they depend on me to take care of their baby and make them look amazing and that's very important to me!”
Jessica’s plans for the further include building her clientele and making her business “well known for great work and a love of pets!”
Chelsea
Chelsea took her time. She enrolled at AGA and worked at the same time. Many of our students have the ability to work and go to school. “Here at AGA, we designed it that way, I couldn't take two months without a paycheck to go to school, so we don't expect many people to have the luxury of a full time, 40 hour a week education.” Kat Marchant Instructor. AGA has tried to make it possible for all people to have the right to a good education while working. Chelsea was one of these people. While working she researched AGA. When it came time to make a decision all she had to do was visit. Chelsea Like so many other of our students was hired for her new career before she even graduated. Our students are AGA alumni for life, so when new graduates are looking for jobs, the majority are successful alumni are looking for new pet stylist to add to their growing businesses. Chelsea secured a job with AGA Alumni Roger and Angie, Who came to AGA together and opened Alopaw Mobile Pet Grooming. After a successful two year career, the mobile became too busy, resulting in a stationary shop as well as the mobile van unit. Barkley's Pet Spa needed a new groomer and naturally, Angie and Ridge hired from where they knew their new stylist would be the best educated.
Chelsea, just like all AGA graduates are family and family is extremely important to us. Now happily working in sunny San Diego, with Angie and Rodger at Barleys Pet Spa, Chelsea has made us very proud.“I love working for Roger and Angie because I am familiar with some of their techniques and knowledge because we graduated from the same school. They are great people who are very skilled and have a passion for animals, and it's great to know that we all have the same training, and think very similar in our care of animals.”
Michael Miera
Michael likes dogs. He really likes bathing them but not because it is easy because the repetition is good for him. “Bathing dogs becomes easy because you can do the same thing the same way, so it works for people who love structure.” Michael prefers to do small to medium dogs for now. “I have not yet mastered how to handle large dogs.” We asked Michael how he plans to learn this large dog handling skill. He commented that he, “will learn why unruly dogs are that way, is something bothering them, are they scared?” The most difficult thing Michael has been working on is his ability to cut nails. This is another difficult thing for beginning pet styling students. Every dog has anywhere from 16-24 nails, that's a lot of pressure. Michael is now working as a pet stylist assistant!
Greer Family
The Greer Family of California is a whole family of girls...except dad Darrell Greer of course. The baby Allison Greer-St Yves started it all. Then the twins, Darla and Sandy followed, and eventually mom, Valerie Greer. We spoke to all of these amazing women now that graduation has come and gone to see what they had to say about being pet industry professionals, and a family of pet stylist. The differences may amaze you!
These four amazing women all have various answers in why becoming a pet stylist was right for them, showing us that every member in a family can have a different personality but a career change can be lucrative to all! This also shows that all pet stylist come from different walks of life!
This was the only question all four ladies answered the same, proving that all those apples do not fall very far from the tree!
When asked about their goals for their careers all of these girls answers made us proud to call them AGA alumna! They are all honest and love what they are doing right now making them one of the unique families to ever share the passion of pet styling.
Allison - “I would love to own my own business one day, who knows maybe if we all live in the same state again we will open a business together!”
Sandy- “My current goal is to make the dog’s haircut look amazing.”
Darla- “I'm the worst at making goals or planning things. I just take everything day to day so I'm really happy just grooming and working where I'm at right now.”
Valerie- “I have so many options at this point I am just riding the wave. I would love to be a master groomer instructor someday, that, of course, takes time and lots of experience.”
All of them amazing and individual as they come, taught us here at AGA that all learning styles, skills, and work ethics are different to all sorts of people. So thank you Greer Girls, we salute you for helping us learn from you when you were learning from us. OH, and when asked about his pet stylist family, dad Darrell Greer says, “There is no reason for any of our dogs to be dirty!”
Allison currently works for Petsmart in Washinton D.C.
Valerie currently works for two shops and works for AGA.
Darla is an Instructor for AGA!
Sandy works as an independent groomer in PA.