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AMY CHEN-VAN METRE
The Short Story
By day, I'm a mid-level finance attorney in BigLaw. Before law school, I worked as a technology/management consulting analyst at Accenture because I've always been a computer/technology person. However, one day decided I needed a change. Regardless of what I do, regardless of what path I take, my life decisions come from a few over-arching personality traits that I have: I find a small joy in taking things apart, figuring how things work, making things better/more efficient, and learning something new.
My creative side comes from an out-of-nowhere attempt at painting as a release from stress, and I fell in love with it. I suppose I've always had artistic tendencies found through my productions of multiple benefit fashion shows during undergrad (originally, I had planned to work in fashion), my short-lived aspirations of acting and modeling, my performances in musicals, and my self-taught skills in web design/development.
My future holds unforeseen adventures and although I don't know where they may lead me, I hope that I can mend both my love for art, law, as well as my skills in business and technology.
The Journey I Took to Get Here
My freshman year of college at Indiana University, Kelley School of Business I was part of a non-profit organization called Social Impact 360, although at the time it was called Compass Fellowship. It's a social entrepreneur fellowship aimed at instructing a small, selective group of freshman students on how to create a social venture/business while also providing the tools and resources for the fellows to succeed once they begin developing their venture. I was unable to come up with a business idea so instead I decided to undertake the production of a charity fashion show for the benefit of Operation Smile with another fellow. The fashion show was called "Strut for Smiles" (CSRwire Article). Luckily from my limited stint as an aspiring model/actor with the Helen Wells Agency, I had some local connections in the industry which allowed me to produce a sold-out event, raising nearly $3,000 for the organization (Short Event Clip | Full Event Reel | Behind the Scenes). I could not have produced the quality of the event without the help of friends: professional photographer Jason Lavengood and art photographer Arjuna Capulong. The success of this event from my leadership in fashion styling, model management, event management, and marketing led to organizations and individuals seeking me out to produce additional fashion shows for each of my remaining years in college. This allowed me to manage events at a high level and delegate tasks such as video editing and graphic design. Big thanks to my good friend Parker Myers, a remarkable graphic designer, and photographer Max Tortoriello.
HYPE presents Step 4, Vogue: Live
HYPE presents Step Easy
While this sparked my interest pursuing a career in fashion, eventually, I decided the fashion industry was not for me, and after interning as an operations/technology intern at, luxury women's brand, Lafayette 148, I made the decision to switch my focus fully to technology. After graduation, I worked at Accenture as both a technology consulting analyst, and then later, a management consulting analyst. I worked on all parts of the systems development life cycle, such as functional design, systems testing, systems design, and change management in relation to the mitigation and effective adoption of systems implementation, on major federal agency projects (e.g. Department of Health and Human Services, Department of State). In layman's terms, I made sure technology solutions worked, were understood, and used correctly and effectively by the end users.
As someone who is always looking for new challenges, I decided that I finally wanted to revisit the idea of law school after I loved my business law class in undergrad so much. So, I attend the University of Notre Dame Law School (GO IRISH!).
I look forward to finding my path in the legal industry and can't wait to see how I grow and develop as an attorney in the coming years. It may not be as glamorous as being an actress or running fashion shows, but I'm excited to take on the challenges that come my way.