June 2018

Anne Skubis is one of Inspire Greatness Aveda’s greatest success stories! Her journey has been an inspiring one, and we’re honored that she is a permanent part of our staff and family. We hope you enjoy getting to know her in this blog as much as we did!About Anne SkubisAnne was one of our many students who changed careers to pursue a career in beauty. She originally graduated from college with a degree in secondary education, but quickly discovered that she didn’t enjoy the student teaching. She tried a few different jobs in retail and management, but didn’t find anything especially fulfilling. Anne always performed well in school, and she had a strong desire to help people, so she enrolled in law school so that she could make use of her intelligence and compassion in tandem.Before long Anne discovered that law school was a competitive and densely toxic environment. Many of the students took to alcohol or drug abuse as a way to manage stress, and Anne found herself trapped alongside her classmates. After two years of feeling like law school was destroying her, she made the difficult decision to leave law school behind and return to her home in Tucson to get a clean start on life. It was during this time at home that she saw a commercial for Aveda Institutes and felt a connection with the school. During her time at law school she worked at Sephora and she loved working with beauty products and helping people there, so she figured that beauty school would allow her to help others through beauty!Anne’s Role at Inspire Greatness AvedaAfter seeing that commercial, Anne enrolled at Inspire Greatness Aveda right away. She graduated from the esthiology program about 10 years ago, and she’s been working at Inspire Greatness Aveda ever since. She was hired to work at the school right after graduation and worked as the marketing director until her recent promotion to director of the Tucson campus. As director, Anne has her hand in everything that happens at the school, from day to day education to the travel abroad experiences! She continuously works to improve the school and uplift both educators and students. She’s in charge of keeping Inspire Greatness great!In addition to being the director of the Tucson campus, Anne is also an Aveda Purefessional, which means she is a highly specialized educator. She specializes in makeup, and works directly for Aveda to teach about makeup. The audition process to become a Purefessional is exceptionally rigorous, requiring a preliminary video audition before being invited to a boot camp and in-person audition with the Aveda global artistic team. It was a very challenging process, but Anne’s Purefessional title is well-earned!Why Inspire Greatness Aveda?Anne discovered the meaning of Aveda when she traveled to India with a group of students and staff that included Brad VanDyke. During her trip she was able to visit the Himalayan Institute where Horst Rechelbacher was taught about Ayurveda and came up with the Aveda brand. She also learned about many of the rituals of Ayurveda and really came to understand the importance of the Aveda brand. The commitment to ingredients, responsible packaging, and giving back to the community isn’t just part of what Aveda does, it’s part of what Aveda is. Anne’s biggest takeaway from her trip to India was why Aveda matters, and she hopes to share that inspiration with the students at Inspire Greatness Aveda.Advice for Future StudentsAnne has a deep and abiding love of what she does and the Aveda way of life she leads. When asked about advice for future students, she says:“Your education is what you make of it. Focus on developing and competing with yourself and don’t worry about what your classmate next to you is doing. Take advantage of every extra opportunity, class, workshop, guest, or speaker that is scheduled. Ultimately, be positive. If you encounter challenges along the way, immediately begin thinking of solutions instead of excuses.”Anne exemplifies this in the way that she takes advantage of all the opportunities in front of her, and she helps others along the way!Live an Aveda LifestyleInspire Greatness Aveda Institutes are beauty schools, but they are also places for our students to call home. People come to the school from all different walks of life to find their passion for beauty and helping other people. If you’re excited about the life you can build for yourself at Inspire Greatness Aveda, contact us at one of our Tucson, Phoenix, Denver, or Provo locations to learn more!

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