SPEAKER 1: Welcome to the Towson University College of Fine Arts and Communications What's Your Story podcast. In today's story, we hear from Heather Sorensen, director of events and operations. She tells us about a decision that changed the course of her life and career. 

HEATHER SORENSEN: I thought I was going to be a science teacher. My great grandpa, my mom's grandfather, was fascinated by the theory of perpetual motion. And I loved going to visit him and seeing the different machines he created. I remember a plywood wheel with nails in it at different places around it to try to get it to keep rotating, sort of like the wheel of fortune. So the physical sciences are something I figured out that I was drawn to when I was very young. 

So I was completely convinced I was going to be a science teacher. I was going to go to college to study to be a teacher. I was a biology major when I got here. I was going to go back to my high school and teach science. That was the plan. 

In high school, I was involved in a student group called Sound Crew and we handled everything that had to do with sound support other than the morning announcements. So football games, pep rallies, school assemblies, and when I came to Towson, I determined that university technical services was the most closely aligned with that and I wanted a job so I could have things to do outside of class. 

I started working on campus before my first class ever. I fit in pretty well with that group and I really loved doing that work. So I determined from talking to the more seasoned personnel in the group that I could get a pay raise by taking a class in theater, Lighting 1. It was going to teach me skills that were more valuable to the group, so I could get a pay raise. That sounded like a great idea. 

So I took Lighting 1 and we had to take a responsibility, a major responsibility, on a production. So I chose to be a master electrician and I can't do anything with numbers-- I was skipping math class-- but I can remember numbers and I can troubleshoot and solve problems really well. So I was pretty good at that job. And I was pretty good at everything else that came at me in theater. I didn't know anything about theater but I was good at all the tasks that they gave me. I can't tell you who the main characters are in nearly any musical, but I was good at the work. And it liked me back, so I kept doing it. 

I was interested in keeping up with it so I took Lighting 2. And that was where I learned that I really loved light, and color, and changing the environment, and affecting people's moods. And I was completely sucked in and that was so meaningful to me that that's what I thought I wanted to do. Maybe I didn't need to go back to my school and teach science. Maybe, if everything I touched went so well in theater, I should be doing that? 

So I went to the office and talked to them-- I had spent a year and a half as a biology major, could I even get out of school? Could I take the right courses? Could I get where I needed to be and get out and keep going? And yeah, it looked like that was going to work out. So I signed the paperwork and I walked out of the building and the grass was greener and the sky was bluer and I've never looked back. [MUSIC PLAYING]