You may have noticed a tall girl with a camera slung around her neck running around events at Rockhurst. Katherine Blanner has done shoots for the Greek life on campus, taken portraits of students, and has even launched her own business.

But a class she took this semester helped her revamp her business in a whole new way.

At the beginning of the semester Prof. Katie Clune of the communication and fine arts department announced to her Introduction to Public Relations class that they would have to come up with a personal brand and mold a project around it. Like Blanner, A majority of the class were second semester seniors, on their way out to job hunt as the semester progressed.

The project centered around becoming more appealing to employers in each student’s planned line of work. The rubric stated, “The purpose of this report is to demonstrate a clear and thoroughly considered plan for establishing yourself in your area of interest for your career.”

Many students created websites, cleared their social media and some even created business cards. Blanner opted to revamp her existing website. The senior has worked on creating her brand since a friend encouraged her to started a business and Facebook page for her photography when she was 17.

For the brand project she decided to spend some time on her website, making sure it accurately reflected the skills she had to offer to future employers — not just her savvy with portraits and engagement photos, but also her abilities in marketing, advertising and writing.

“I think what helped me the most was being able to see and understand my own business through the light of someone else looking at it,” Blanner mused.

Blanner has been photographing her world since she was 8 years old. It started with her first point-and-shoot camera from her grandfather. He had a hobby in photography and had a master’s from St. Louis University in urban design and architecture. With that camera, Blanner wanted to practice honing in her own eye for detail. Eventually, when she was 18 she saved the whole summer to purchase her first DSLR camera.

Originally, Blanner did not see herself starting a business.

“I was going to be a hobbyist and just do it for fun. I thought it was a really interesting way to see the world in a visible manner,” she said.

The project that Clune encouraged students to take seriously was one that helped Blanner get a job, book photo shoots and overall encouraged her to look toward her future as a photographer.

“Seeing my own vision in someone else’s eye was the number one thing I got out of the project,” she said.

The student photographer hopes to keep her website and business going in the future. If all goes well Blanner hopes to become a fashion photographer for a luxury fashion brand.

As for her personal brand, she said the P.R. assignment served as a “huge benefit” by showing her skills expanded beyond photography.

“Marketing myself as somebody, and building a public relations plan as someone who can do it all was quite helpful,” Blanner said.