Retiree returns to work with dream job
At 64, Elaine Allen was enjoying retirement. After leaving her law enforcement career
over 14 years before, she wasn’t looking to jump back into the workforce. But, as
fate would have it, she was about to get the chance to chase a long forgotten dream.
At the request of her diocesan, Allen was asked to spearhead a publication for the church group. With a creative streak and love of art since childhood, she jumped at the chance. It was only after she accepted the challenge that she realized she was going to need a little help.
“I had no clue what to do,” Allen recalled. “I started looking at the software that I would need to use in order to create the publication and I knew I would need to be trained in it to do a good job.” That’s when she found the Digital Media Arts program at Washtenaw Community College.
Hooked on design
Consisting of 3D animation, digital video, graphic design technology, photography
and web design & development, the DMA program at WCC offers both a certificate in
Graphic Design and an Associate Degree.
With a robust design program at her fingertips, what started out as a few classes at WCC soon opened up into a new possible career path for the former police officer.
“I became very interested in what I was learning and I just kept going,” Allen said. “My goal was to be the very best that I could be.”
A goal made attainable, in part, to the faculty she encountered while at the college.
“I liked that the instructors are out working in the field they teach in. They have their finger on the pulse of what’s going on currently in their industries,” she said. “They push you beyond what you think you can do.”
Second career success
While reinventing yourself after retirement isn’t easy, it’s something Allen says
anyone with the right dedication can do. “Sometimes we are our own worst enemy because
we only think about our age, but as a mature adult we have a lot of life experience
to offer. I’m here to say go for it.”
And go for it she did. Allen recently graduated with an Associate in Applied Science degree in Graphic Arts and is currently running her own freelance graphic design business—veallen.com.
“I have come full circle,” Allen said. “I didn’t actually go from law enforcement to design, I just returned to my first love after a long hiatus.”