A Set of Blueprints for a Solid Future

By Kaye Collier
The Marlow Review
Reprinted with permission
© March 1, 2007

If one were to choose a single word to describe Amber Stroll, it would have to be “energetic.” To say she is a busy young woman is an understatement

A senior at Marlow High School, Amber attends three classes there in the morning, grabs a quick lunch, then participates in the cosmetology program at Red River Technology Center until almost mid-afternoon. And when she leaves the tech center, she reports for work at 360 Bistro, a restaurant in Duncan, where she serves as a waitress several days a week.

At Red River Tech, Amber is in her second year of cosmetology classes. In addition, she attends a course in financial business training three hours a month at the center.

She is also in her second year as a member the SkillsUSA organization at the tech center and, in fact, is currently serving as president of the school’s afternoon cosmetology SkillsUSA chapter.

“Her leadership skills have led the group to work on several community projects,” noted Amber’s cosmetology instructor, Gerry Rawlings.

“Under her direction, the chapter chose to do an ongoing clothing drive for Women’s Haven; and at Christmastime, the members gathered clothes, toys and stocking-stuffers for a young child (through the Angel Tree Child Project).”

As a member of the cosmetology program at the school, Amber also uses the skills she has acquired to benefit residents of the Duncan Community Residence once a month.

Her involvement in SkillsUSA has led her to compete in the cosmetology division at the organization’s contests.

“Last year,” advised Rawlings, “Amber represented RRTC in the SkillsUSA competitions at the district level, where she was awarded third place, which sent her to compete at the state level.

“At the competitions,” she elaborated, “contestants are judged on a fantasy hairstyle completed on a long-hair mannequin, a scissor haircut and a razor haircut executed on mannequins; a written theory test; and a written Personal Development test over SkillsUSA information.

“This year,” Rawlings continued, “Amber represented RRTC at the district contest in the area of nails. There, she demonstrated her skills in sculptured nails, nail tips with silk overlay, nail art and theory, and Personal Development tests.”

Amber has been nominated into the tech center’s chapter of the National Technical Honor Society and was one of 10 members of this select group to visit the state Capitol on February 14.

“She represented the cosmetology program and RRTC at the Day at the Capitol in Oklahoma City, which is a statewide gathering of NTHS students,” Rawlings noted.

Amber indicated that while at the state Capitol, she had an opportunity to meet five state legislators—Sen. Don Barrington, Sen. Joe Dorman, Sen. Tom Ivester, Rep. Dennis Johnson and Rep. Earl Garrison.

Another of the highlights of her educational career at RRTC came within the past month when she was named a Student of the Month for January by the Duncan Noon Lions Club.

Judging from Rawlings’ assessment of her student, she heartily approves of Amber’s selection for this prestigious honor, as well as for all the others she has received.

“Amber is a highly-motivated student who is always willing to help the first-year students,” Rawlings attested, adding that “she is also a good ‘taskmaster’ when it comes her turn to be the ‘salon manager.’ She can get a crew of students cleaning and organizing faster than anyone else.”

“Amber is a fast learner and shows natural talent in the field of cosmetology,” Rawlings continued. “You can tell by her work that she enjoys doing hair and nails!”

Amber said that when she completes the cosmetology program at the tech center, she will have amassed 1,000 hours of class time. Then when she receives her high school diploma in May, she will be credited with an additional 500 hours for having finished high school.

However, even before that time, she is scheduled to take her state board exams in cosmetology in April. A passing grade will qualify her for state licensing.

As far as her place in the workaday world is concerned, Amber has had a job since she was 16. She worked as a waitress at the Duncan Golf and Country Club for about a year-and-a-half before hiring on with 360 Bistro. There, she works from 5 to 9 p.m. on Tuesdays through Saturdays, she said.

After high schoolAmber plans to seek a job in cosmetology this summer and in the fall, to enter Cameron University, where she will pursue a bachelor’s degree in general business. She will live with her father in Lawton and work part-time as a beautician or nail tech while she attends college.

She and her dad are planning to purchase a facility in Lawton and convert it into a beauty salon while she’s still in school so that after she graduates, she will be able to open her own shop, she said.

Then eventually, she continued, she may put the salon into someone else’s hands and use her degree to find a position in the business world.

And of course, she hopes someday to get married and have a family.

She has been dating a young man named Cody Brewer for the past two years, she noted. A 2005 graduate of Marlow High, Cody is employed with Halliburton. The two are planning to wait until after Amber has finished college to marry.