“There are a lot of skills that I learned that I wouldn’t have had access to the knowledge without Francis Tuttle.”
Adelaide Burk has always been interested in design and visual arts, particularly aspects like color combinations. That interest led her to Francis Tuttle Technology Center, where she completed the Graphic Design and Communications program while attending high school as a homeschooled student.
“There are things that will stick in my brain, and I can’t get them out of my head,” Burk said. “I feel like I need to put that into the world, and I think it’s pretty easy for me to give identity to things through design and be able to communicate a feeling or an emotion.”
Burk selected the program partly because she wants to work directly with clients. Burk is currently focusing on freelance graphic design but is open to other opportunities that may come her way, such as working for a company.
“There are so many different aspects of graphic design,” Burk explained. “There are so many branches of it that you can do, and so many niches to go into that I felt like I had a lot of freedom there.”
She also plans to offer freelance photography services, building on the skills she discovered in the program. While photography had always been of interest to her, Burk didn’t explore it until she was at Francis Tuttle. Burk said it “turned out to be a really valuable skill to learn,” and she got a job last spring photographing high school and college graduation ceremonies. Now she wants to explore taking senior photos and potentially weddings and other creative photoshoots.
“It was pretty cool to learn that skill,” Burk said. “Almost by chance, it was part of my program, and then it becomes such a big part of my life that I can use now.”
Burk said her instructor, Liz Dinkins, prepared her class by teaching them how to work in the industry, what to expect, and giving advice for the future. Career fairs also gave Burk opportunities to interact with professionals from advertising agencies and learn more about the industry.
At the beginning of the program, Dinkins told her students that they would get out of the program what they put into it. Burk said that advice of “put the amount of effort into it that you want to look back on” is what she would want to extend to students considering attending Francis Tuttle too.
During her time at Francis Tuttle, Burk represented the technology center on both the state and national levels. She competed at the 2026 Business Professionals of America (BPA) National Leadership Conference and placed fourth in the 2026 Adobe Certified Professional U.S. National Championship. At this competition, participants were given eight hours to complete a real-world design challenge for a nonprofit client.
“It was a trial run of exactly what I would need to work with a client,” Burk said. “It was eight hours of a real nonprofit being like, ‘This is what we need. Here’s what we cannot have. Here’s what we want.’ And getting to put that all into something and nicely wrap it up was good practice.”
In addition to the technical skills, Burk said Francis Tuttle helped her develop skills that will be beneficial regardless of where her career takes her. For example, she collaborated on team projects for BPA, an experience that will be especially beneficial if she ever works in an office or corporate environment.
“There are a lot of skills that I learned that I wouldn’t have had access to the knowledge without Francis Tuttle,” Burk shared. “That just naturally opens more opportunities and opens more doors once people know you know how to do something.”