Savannah Christian (Photo courtesy of papercity.com)
Savannah Christian had never been more nervous in her life. She was interviewing for admission to the honors college at Texas A&M University-Commerce when her interviewer asked her about being captain of her cheer squad in high school. “Don’t be mistaken… I have taught the girls on my cheer squad not to be stupid,” she replied. “I have tried to be a role model for people in my school that you can do something stereotypically dumb but you can still be smart. I said that I was going to break the stereotype.” Later she learned that that statement is what got her accepted to the Honors Program at Texas A&M University-Commerce.
Small Town Girl
Determined and unstoppable are the two words I would use to describe Paper City‘s 21-year-old editorial assistant. As we are sipping our Pearl Cup lattes, I can not believe how mature and driven she is for her age. Savannah Christian grew up in Paris, a small town with a population of about 28,000 in northeast Texas. “My parents lived on 64 acres of land in the middle of nothing,” she says. According to Christian, she was always a nerd growing up. This stylish, short-haired, tiny, blond girl is about as fashion-forward as they come. Not to mention she has the dream job of many 20-year-old aspiring women journalists. She is so easy to talk to and lights up the room in her black skinny jeans, big smile and fur vest. Her gold arm candy and her sky-high heels complete the look.
For a girl who seems to have it all, times have not always been easy for her. When she was younger, her parents divorced and many of her immediate family members passed away all during the same time frame, leaving just her, her mom, dad and older sister. A combination of having a sister seven years older than her, and whom she always wanted to copy, and these hard times made Savannah grew up fast.
From her teenage years on, she was involved in just about everything at Paris High School. “School was always my thing,” she said, “I was captain of my competition cheer squad and in about eight different service clubs. I immersed myself into school.” She worked hard to make good grades but writing was the one thing she always enjoyed. “It came naturally for me and I knew I wanted to do something in that area,” she says.
Her Love for Writing
It was her high school English teacher, Sandra Strohm, who really nurtured her love for writing and encouraged her to pursue English as a major during college. “English is a hard major, you have to read so much,” she said. “She believed that I could do it. Out of all my teachers, she was a champion for me.”
Sandra Strohm isn’t the only one who noticed Savannah’s potential. By the time her senior year of high school rolled around, she only wanted to go to the University of Texas. It was her dream school. Little did she know that those plans would quickly change when her mom heard that Texas A&M University-Commerce was starting an honors college. Reluctant to apply, she went ahead and did it anyway.
With a full scholarship from the honors program, she jumped right in and immediately got involved. In addition to her English major, she also tacked on a journalism major with a news editorial specification. “Savannah is motivated, curious, and passionate about her academic and career goals, which automatically endeared me to her,” says her college mentor, Dr. Eric Gruver, professor of history and advisor for the honors college in Commerce. “She can talk and engage with anyone because she is genuine, and that mentality and behavior has earned her access to people in high offices.”
A Dream Internship and More
As the editor of her student newspaper, she learned that while she was interested in writing for a publication, news was a little too monotonous and dull. “I wanted to experience something more fun so I hounded the people at Living Magazine for an internship,” she said. Living is a community style magazine in North Texas, much like Paper City. Her persistence paid off and she finally got the job.” On the second day, she was asked to go cover an event in Dallas. “I was a country girl from the middle of nowhere… freaked out to drive in Dallas alone, and I went to a big Victoria Secret event,” she said. ” I had no clue what I was doing.” By the end of her internship, she had fallen in love with magazine.
And she did not stop there. One of her most notable experiences was being hired by the marketing and communications department at Commerce to be the editorial coordinator for the school. “It was the best opportunity I have ever had in my life by far,” she said. “I got to spend a day and interview Dan Rather. I had a lot of opportunities. I got into PR. I had a broad range of experience in all of the different areas of journalism.”
Somewhere in between all of this, she found a little time to be social. She actually met her boyfriend while she was at her interview for a job on campus. He was in the student government association and president of the student body. “I was sweating and red,” she laughs. “I don’t remember anything about that interview.” They have been dating for two and a half years.
Savannah’s contagious personality leaves me wanting to know more and more about her life. She engages in our conversation and lightheartedly laughs as she describes all of her accomplishments. Marlee Neely, her best friend from college and little sister in Chi Omega, says she wanted to be just like her. “She was a double major, taking 18 hours a semester, held two jobs, and held an office in Chi Omega,” Neely says. “But she did every one of those things to her highest potential everyday. I wanted to be just like her, and in that be the best Chi Omega I could be.” She says that Christian is the reason she decided to join in the first place. “Savannah is a very honest friend. She gives great advice and never conceals her opinion or the truth about what she sees, even if it’s not exactly what you want to hear,” she said. “She helped me grow as a person and pushed me to take risks at being better. Today I am the president of our chapter and I feel she deserves some credit for that.”
Christian graduated in three years and started searching for a job at age 20. She had started following Paper City but at the time there were no job openings. “I came to Dallas one day and I just walked into the office… and handed them my resume,” she said. “The same day someone resigned and I got the job.”
Sticking to Her Roots and Her Faith
For a small town southern girl, moving to Dallas was a really big change. At first, she struggled to fit in. “I got scared to be different. I thought I needed to fit the industry… fit the mold.” She grew her pixie-cut hair long to look more like the other young women in the social world of the fashion industry in Dallas. It hasn’t taken her long to realize that is not who she is. “I have always been this person that does whatever she wants and didn’t care,” she says. “I was always that girl in Paris… I knew what I was wearing was fashion forward and people would look at me like, ‘What the hell do you have on?'”
She is changing her tune back to that girl from Paris,and decided to cut all of her hair off the same day she met with me. Why? She adored her short pixie haircut and was sick of feeling like she had to be a “cookie cutter” version of everyone else. (
Her co-worker, Lacy Ball, says Christian’s personality makes the office brighter. “She is very committed and always willing to go above and beyond,” Ball says. “She is always punctual, follows through and follows up with everyone for any projects and is extremely talented.”
Even when times have been hard, she leans on her faith to get her through. Being a Christian has always been her base. She smiled and said, “I am here for a reason and I don’t know what it is but for some reason I am supposed to be here.” She never wants to be the girl who couldn’t. Savannah describes herself as a naturally driven person. “A huge motivator has always been other people’s doubt. When she was breaking the mold in Paris, people would always say, ‘You can’t, you shouldn’t, you won’t,'” she said. “Not that I want to prove them wrong… I just do not want them to be right. At the end of the day, I don’t want to say damn they were right, I couldn’t do it.”
