Caressa Brown, a student enrollment advisor on campus, who has taken on many roles in her life, including modeling, humanitarian, writer for Dayton Most Metro, producer for 91.3 FM WYSO\u2019s Community Voices and Owner of (DE-FI) Dayton Emerging Fashion Incubator.<\/p>\n
What makes her interesting\u2026<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Brown began her modeling career when she was very young and was instantly coveted by modeling agencies, including Click and Elite. As a graduate of Wright State University, Brown has a degree in Organizational Leadership and is currently working towards a second degree in Non-Profit Management. Jamez Duty Caressa Brown, a student enrollment advisor on campus, who has taken on many roles in her life, including modeling, humanitarian, writer for Dayton Most Metro, producer for 91.3 FM WYSO\u2019s Community Voices and Owner of (DE-FI) Dayton Emerging Fashion Incubator. What makes her interesting\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":10714,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tartan-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/CaressaBrownWEB.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-2Mz","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10699"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10699\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10701,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10699\/revisions\/10701"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nBrown didn\u2019t start a modeling career because she felt she was beautiful, but instead, because she felt the complete opposite.
\n\u201cI suffered from very low self-esteem and would get teased all of the time because I was so tall and thin,\u201d Brown said. \u201cI used to go home crying almost every day because the kids at school teased me so badly. So my mom, who used to model, signed me up for modeling school in an effort to help me to walk and speak with more confidence.
\n\u201dHer devotion to fashion wasn\u2019t an easy road, however, Brown had responsibilities the average twelve-year-old didn\u2019t, while she tried her best to build a modeling career.
\n\u201cAt the same time I was also taking care of a disabled mother since I was 12, so my career never really took off the way that I had wanted it to, but when opportunities knocked, I answered them,\u201d Brown said.
\nShe said the fashion industry is very harsh so it\u2019s important to surround yourself with a strong support system.
\n\u201cA strong support system is necessary to making it in the modeling and fashion industry. You have to have a support system in place, it\u2019s as plain and simple as that,\u201d Brown said. \u201cThis industry is very cut throat; I\u2019m 6\u20190 tall, I\u2019ve been between a size 00-2 all of my life, which is my natural build, but I\u2019ve been told that I need to lose weight.\u201d
\nBrown said she comes from a diverse background.
\n\u201cI come from a diverse family, so I\u2019ve been told that my features aren\u2019t \u2018black enough\u2019 and that I would never be cast as a black model,\u201d Brown said. \u201cBut I also had parents who were very active in my life and they shielded me from a lot of that and made getting my education a priority. You have to have a plan B.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\u201cIt\u2019s very difficult to balance these things. This is where I struggled with my modeling career. Not only was I hundreds of miles away from the agencies that scouted and signed me, but I was working full time at General Motors, and I was trying to balance my classes, both at Wright State and Sinclair,\u201d she said. When
\nBrown\u2019s life became more focused in the Dayton area she felt like she had lost a part of herself because she loved the fashion world.
\n\u201cI thought that that part of my life and career was over,\u201d Brown said.
\nNot letting this hinder her for long, Brown began to create the world she loved here.
\n\u201cIn staying active in the community, I\u2019ve helped out with several other fashion events that took place here in Dayton. After a while, people started to take notice of what I was doing and how I operated,\u201d Brown said.
\nKeeping her dream alive in the face of adversity, she created a network of support in the fashion community and translated that same perseverance to organization (DE-FI) Dayton\u2019s Emerging Fashion Incubator. \u201cOur mission is to serve as a support system whether it\u2019s providing a platform for them to showcase their work, build clientele, purchase fabric for their new lines, pay their admission into influential Fashion Weeks, or sponsor other fashion related events,\u201d Brown said.
\nEver the fashion enthusiast, Brown, with her organization DE-FI, hopes to propel fashion forward in the Dayton area. \u201cI currently work in the New Student Enrollment center and the testing center here at Sinclair, every week I have a student come in and say that they are interested in fashion design but nothing is offered in Dayton,\u201d Brown said.
\nWanting to keep potential designers, models and fashion enthusiasts in the area, DE-FI plans on starting The Art of (DE-FI)ance Fashion Fund aimed at aiding local designers in reaching their dreams of making collections that could rival those in bigger cities. Alongside DE-FI, Brown has had the chance of working with the Midwest Fashion Week, The Alternative Fashion Mob, Great Lakes Fashion Week and many more fashion organizations across Ohio and the Midwest. \u201cI\u2019ve also had the honor of being selected to work on the volunteer team for the Council of Fashion Designers of America, headed by designer Diane Von Furstenberg, to get hands-on experience during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in NYC. I\u2019ll be serving my third season in February,\u201d she said. Building connections through volunteering and outreach are also two of her goals. \u201cJust as my modeling career started at the age of 12, I also started volunteering in the community, and giving back has always been at the heart of what I do,\u201d she said.
\nBrown and her models have stepped outside the world of fashion to aid local organizations aimed at building a better community like Habitat for Humanity, Dayton Give’s Back, and Mud Volleyball for Epilepsy. We also raised money for Clothes That Work, Hospice of Dayton, The Circle of Vision Keepers Re-Entry and Recovery Program.
\n\u201cI want anything that has my name associated with it to be a reflection of who I am as a person, and being a part of positive change in our community is a priority for me,\u201d Brown said.
\nIn 2013, Brown was nominated for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Woman of the year for the Dayton area\u2014a position that takes strong examples of leadership, ambition, dynamic character, humanitarianism and charisma. Brown\u2019s future goals, include earning her Masters in Higher Education Student Affairs, keeping her outreach into the community going with positive encouragement, and support of local organizations and continuing to build up Dayton\u2019s fashion community.<\/p>\n
\nReporter<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"