#003: Danica Van Horn (29 yrs) on Quitting a STEM Career, Founding a Jewelry Line, and Designing for Kenny Chesney and Florida Georgia Line

Jun 15, 2017

Danica Van Horn (@DanicaVH) graduated from Virginia Tech in 2010 with a degree in Computer Science and a Minor in Math. At just 29 years old, Danica is a nationally-known jewelry designer and entrepreneur with the technical chops of a STEM grad.

In only two years following graduation, Danica quit her prestigious, safe, and promising job at Dell to found Doxahlogy, a handmade men and women’s jewelry line. Out of her Nashville storefront, Danica sells and designs jewelry for country superstars like Kenny Chesney, Florida Georgia Line, Thomas Rhett, and Dan + Shay.

In this episode, Danica and I discuss her story and: 

• How to optimize finding your passion and purpose through the process of “experimentation”
• How to identify your creativity within
• What to do when you realize you’re not passionate about your major
• What to do when you feel suffocated in your career path and how to determine what makes you “light up”
• Why attending a large state school can give your employment prospects a boost
• Why majoring in STEM makes sense even if you don’t want a career in STEM
• Why STEM students with a 3.2 GPA and other STEM students with 4.0 GPA have almost identical career prospects
• Why it’s a mistake to lock yourself away studying in the library
• Why college isn’t choosing “what you want to do the rest of your life”
• Why designing your college career around someone else’s expectations is dangerous

Danica’s “tweetable” advice for college students: “Follow your passions and listen to your gut.”

To learn more about Danica and her work, check out Doxahlogy on the web (see celebs wearing her jewelry) or on Twitter and Instagram.