Awards, Recognition Helps Student's Business Grow

When Christine Costigan was ten, she began taking pictures with the family camera and was hooked. Two years later, convinced that photography was not merely a passing interest, her parents bought her a SLR camera for her twelfth birthday. Soon, she was engaging friends and relatives to pose in clothing and makeup for the elaborate scenes she loved to stage.

When she was 19, Costigan began taking visual arts classes at HCC: design, photography, and drawing. But months later, when she became pregnant, she was forced to delay exploring a career in art to meet the demands of raising her son.  She spent the next

six years working, raising her sons (her second child was born in 2006), photographing friends and family, and saving money for her dream of opening her own photography studio.

In 2007, she took her savings and invested it in professional photography equipment. She rented a shared space in a studio in Easthampton, and began doing portraits and wedding photography. As her reputation and clientele grew, she was able to scale back her cleaning jobs and focus on the work she loved. She also realized that in order to grow her business, she needed more than just talent.

“I’m artistic—I’m not a natural when it comes to business—but I knew I needed both for my business to succeed” she said. She decided to enroll in HCC to acquire those skills, and in fall 2008 began working on her AA in marketing.

She began by taking marketing, management, and advertising classes. She also found a mentor and supporter in Anne Potter, her business teacher. “Anne has been awesome, she has helped me in so many ways” she said.  “I turn to her for advice on everything, and she has connected me with so many opportunities.”

Encouraged by Potter, Costigan applied for the Harold Grinspoon Entrepreneurial Spirit Award, established to recognize entrepreneurial spirit and encourage pursuit of entrepreneurial dreams.  In October, she was awarded $1,000 by the Harold Grinspoon Charitable Foundation.  Three weeks later, she won the first Kittredge Center Mini-Grant, a $500 award established by HCC alumnus Michael Kittredge, to enable recipients to attend conferences, obtain further skills in their chosen field, or purchase something to enhance their business.

Costigan is using the Grinspoon award to relocate her studio to Holyoke. “Right now I share studio space with a pastel artist” she explained. “This will finally give me a place of my own.”  The Kittredge Center Mini-Grant will be used to purchase photographic equipment to expand her business. What does Costigan think about her double dose of good fortune? “This is the most amazing, exciting time in my life” she remarked.

Check out Costigan’s work at www.chrissycostigan.com.

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