Late spring is an inspiring time on any university campus. At an art school, graduation season is the moment to reveal your pièce de résistance: a definitive work that will launch your creative career. When production started on our latest online recruitment campaign for Santa Fe University of Art and Design last May, several of our subjects were preparing for takeoff. Their incredible energy inspired us to produce our own magnum opus that tells the story of music student Rachel Dupard.

Rachel was finishing up her junior year when we captured her story, but she was already well on her way to an incredible entertainment career. Her band was recording an album and performing all around town, she had recently completed some professional acting gigs, and she appeared in a musical featurette for Super Bowl 50.

“I graduate next December, and I feel prepared. I’m ready to go out into the world,” Rachel told us. By the end of our whirlwind week of shooting Rachel’s video—which included stellar performances at Meow Wolf and SFUAD’s QuadStock festival—we had no doubt that she’s headed for stardom!

Just like our previous campaigns for SFUAD, we interviewed several other outstanding students for a social media campaign. It’s all about sharing true testimonials of amazing art school success. Donna is a sophomore performing arts student who has acted in a production every semester of her college career. We tagged along behind-the-scenes for her star turn in SFUAD’s production of the musical Heathers.

Graphic design student Caleb was about to graduate when we connected with him, and had amazing stories of founding a student art collective and scoring real-life design gigs. Alvie was busy running his own production company and finishing up his film degree, and Ysidro was about to mount his thesis show in the photography program.

“I feel lucky, because I got a really great fine art education here, and also learned this commercial aspect as well,” Ysidro told us. “I like mixing things up. I don’t think I’ll ever have a straight path where I say, ‘I’m a commercial photographer’ or ‘I’m just fine art.'” His observation perfectly sums up SFUAD’s approach to art education—and also resonates with the 12FPS philosophy! Check out the full campaign here, and watch it unfold on SFUAD’s Facebook and Instagram over the next few weeks.