Hello! My name is Erika Hope.

Hope is actually my middle name, but I like to include it because I really am all about hope and looking for the positive sides of things.

I live in Southern California with my “20-somethings” son and daughter, and our little dog Siouxsie (a black and white Australian Shepherd).

My son is a high school basketball coach, an art promoter, and when needed because following your dreams doesn’t always pay the bills, and Uber driver.

My daughter works for the Nike store at the Grove in Los Angeles (a famous outdoor shopping center) and travels the world whenever she can.

As for me, I have worked at Nutrilite, where we make vitamins for Amway, for almost 25 years. I have had positions in marketing, communications, guest relations, and now HR. It has been a great career, and has allowed me to travel to remote organic farms in Mexico and Brazil.

I am now in my last semester at Penn State, majoring in Advertising, PR and Strategic Communications, although I have worked in communications in one form or another for more than 20 years. In fact, I will finally getting my bachelor’s degree 30 years after graduating high school!!!

Initially, I was just focused on completing my degree, just for my own self-esteem. But, as I took more and more classes about design and art, they rekindled my love of art and creativity. I loved the drawing and sculpture classes I took, and last semester I took a photography course that allowed my to do a photo essay about my family members who suffer from Huntington’s Disease. You can see those photos here.

I am also recently divorced, after 25 years of marriage … and that was a really hard transition. So I now love butterflies or symbols of transformation or metamorphosis, which I believe is actually a constant state we are all in, even if we are unaware of it.

I love art, nature, animals and children, Zumba! … and thinking about ways to design creative and sustainable options for my home – like concrete countertops or planting a labyrinth instead of a lawn. I haven’t done either of those things … yet. But I am sure once my school career is finally officially over the education will continue by trial and error with creative endeavors!

What a difference water conservation makes!