Merchandising

Alumni

Lisa Pendergrass
Fall’1996 Graduate

I began my time at UNA fresh out of high school in the fall of 1992. I entered college with plans to change to the world and started out majoring in Social Work with a minor in Political Science. Not only were my grades dubious, but I was miserable. So after two semesters I took my first HES class, thinking that possibly this would be a better choice of a minor for me. I was definitely happier and my grades were definitely better, but I continued to struggle with Political Science and Social Work courses for another semester. Then the summer after my second year I began to realize that whatever I majored in would ultimately determine the job I would be doing when I graduated. At this point I knew that Social Work would never be for me. By this time I’d already been working in retail since I was a senior in high school. I knew that, despite long hours and crazy holidays, I was good at it and I enjoyed it. I declared a change of major that summer and began majoring in HES with a concentration in retailing and clothing. My grades immediately rebounded and I enjoyed school for the first time since I’d begun. I graduated two and a half years later, only nine semesters total, and began working in retail “for real.” I was in management training at Roger’s Department Store when I graduated, but the summer after graduation I was called for an interview with Parisian. The HR department at Parisian had gotten my resume from the career services office at UNA (So hint – take advantage of this).

I came to work at Parisian in the summer of 1997 and I quickly became very popular with management both at the store level and at the corporate level because of my take charge attitude and my superior merchandising skills (much of which I learned from HES). I went from sales associate to senior sales associate to Sales Manager Trainee to Sales Manager. I am still with the company (all though now we’re named Belk) and I am currently the manager of Children’s, Junior’s and Intimate Apparel. With my career I’ve had the opportunity to travel often to help open new stores. I am a store trainer so I get to train the new programs that we roll out to our associates. I get to put all of those bulletin board skills from visual merchandising class to use in my role as the store’s credit champion. I hire, train, manage and critique associates on their performances. And I work hands on every day with merchandise presentation and distribution.

I will always look back on my choice to move to HES as one that would set my life on the correct course. I loved my time in the HES department at UNA for many reasons, including the courses I was studying and the friends I made. But more importantly, I am thankful for my time there because it prepared me for a career that I love and enjoy doing. Retail isn’t for everyone and many people tried to tell me what a mistake I was making when I began, but it is the right career for me and I am able to do it to the best of my ability because of what I learned at UNA in the HES department.