COVER STORY
VANESSA ECHOLS
Life ’ s Circle Continues
by Laura Dorsey , Master Story Teller
COURTESY OF JENNIFER YON AGENCY t is incredible when life comes full circle , and you get to engage with people years down the line . That is what Jennifer Yon felt when she realized that Vanessa Echols would grace the cover of the magazine that she had founded years ago . A little fanned out , Jennifer remembers that as a journalism student , how much in awe she was of Echols . Vanessa Echols embodied the success Jennifer aspired to . And here we are , years later , Success Story- Everything Comes Full Circle .
Not Long Ago
Vanessa Echols also is aware that everything comes back full circle . She feels that life is an echo ; what you send out-comes back , what you sow-you reap , what you give- you get . When Vanessa looks at her life , she sees that this mantra is truly the foundation that grounds her . And it started at an early age . She reflects that her parents sowed into her , raising a confident girl , long before that word was a popular description of a woman . Not only her parents but her entire neighborhood of strong women embodied this confidence . These same women , who may not have had the opportunity to go to college or have careers of their own , sowed into her the encouragement to shoot for the stars . But it was not only the women in the neighborhood that sowed into Vanessa . As a young girl , she watched Brenda Blackmon , the first Black woman that she saw anchor an evening newscast in Columbus , Georgia . Fascinated by her , Vanessa watched the news every day , knowing somewhere deep inside that this was her destiny . That thought followed her as a Girl Scout , where she earned a writing badge , photography badge , and a radio badge . Now that she thinks back , this was amusing , considering that the most common badges for Girl Scouts are First Aid , Swimming , Troop Camper , and Wildlife .
At times , Vanessa thought that she would defy her destiny by going in a different direction . She thought about being a veterinarian or a dentist . However , the stars were aligned for her to be just what she wanted to be when she was a young girl . Her freshman year at the University of Alabama , she was taking an Introduction To Communications Class . The
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