While many students plan to get their first real jobs once they leave college, some have already started down their career path before even leaving high school.

One of these ambitious students is 18-year-old Taylor Miller, a first-year student at SMU who began her own jewelry company at the age of nine, called Hazen Jewelry.

Already a nationally established business, Hazen Jewelry is sold in boutiques and specialty stores worldwide.

Miller’s line is sold at such stores like For Heaven’s Sake in Snider Plaza.

Miller first discovered jewelry making when she was 9 years old, and inspired by her grandmother’s costume jewelry collection, she reconstructed a pearl necklace from scratch.

She enrolled in a class right away, and later that year, Hazen Jewelry was launched.

Six months later, she won the Mississippi Museum of Art’s young artist of the year award after presenting her jewelry at the Oxford Floral trunk show.

“She’s awesome, and one of the most stylish people I know,” Sarah Anne Guenard, a friend of Miller’s said.

Miller began by handcrafting each piece of jewelry to be sold by the company, working from home and designing and creating each collection by herself.

As high school approached, she found it difficult to manage her time between school and her business.

College to be no different in terms of time management.

“It was extremely difficult but definitely worth it,” said Miller.

Now that she is in college she plans to relocate her resources to Dallas so she can run her business while attending school.

“I think Dallas will be an even greater place to run my business,” she adds.

To read her blog, All That Glistens, go to www.hazenjewelry.com.