EB Tech senior takes first steps toward a career in fashion design

EB Tech senior takes first steps toward a career in fashion design

Expect to see Samantha Oliveira at New York Fashion Week in the near future.

The East Brunswick Tech senior from Old Bridge has her sights set on a career in fashion design, and her ambition is longstanding.

“The essay I wrote to get into this school was about how I wanted to be a fashion designer,” she said.

A multimedia art and digital design major, she has been accepted by Pace University, Seton Hall, the University of Hartford, Quinnipiac, Marymount Manhattan College and Thomas Jefferson University. She is waiting for hear from the Fashion Institute of Technology. So far, she has been offered almost $500,000 in scholarships.

Part of her application process included three sewing projects, four fashion drawings and a fashion collection of six pieces.

“My artwork was based on Audrey Hepburn because she’s my all-time favorite,” Samantha said. “I did a modern take on all of her famous looks.”

Her mother, Susana, is a native of Portugal, and her father, Carlos, also is of Portuguese extraction. She has relatives who have been wedding-dress and jewelry designers.

She said her experience in Joseph Tiedemann’s multimedia art and digital design classroom has given her a head start on her desired career.

“I came in here not knowing how to use Photoshop or how to draw,” Samantha said. “I definitely would not be going to fashion school if I went to a different school.”

“She is one of the most exceptional students I have had the pleasure of instructing in my entire career,” Tiedemann said. “I respect her relentless work ethic as not only a highly skilled traditional visual artist, but as a formidable digital and performance artist as well. Samantha is a student whose unique aptitudes cross so many diverse artistic disciplines with an exceptional level of skill far beyond her years.”

Samantha said her brother, Logan, an eight-grader, is hoping to follow in her footsteps at EB Tech.

Samantha said she might consider law school after college, hoping to advocate for workers who are exploited by the fashion industry.

“I am that kid who is constantly learning,” she said.

The MCVTS School of the Arts, on the East Brunswick Campus, offers career majors in theater, dance, digital filmmaking, graphic design/commercial art and illustration, multimedia art and design, arts technology, and music performance and technology.

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