Breyonna Lawrence serves as Washington County High School’s Adobe Video Design instructor, where she helps students navigate the tricky world of software design programs to make them accessible tools to students of all skill levels.
The daughter of Katina and Brian Lawrence, Breyonna grew up with a flair for the creative and a passion for the arts, something that has shaped her path into education, graphic design and marketing.
“When I was younger, I was always interested in being as creative as possible and expressing that creativity wherever I could,” she recalls. “I always wanted to be on TV and go into entertainment or broadcast.”
Indeed, Lawrence was especially outgoing and never shied away from anything that allowed her to perform, whether it was at her home church or some other event that carried her across the stage.
Despite her love for the creative arts, Lawrence performed just as well academically, graduating as the valedictorian of her high school class.
“I was always pretty good at math and science but I really enjoyed leaning into my creativity as much as possible,” she says. “During high school I was a part of a lot of different organizations and I used to help host events, so I always had my sights set on anything that could keep me on that track and hopefully earn a living at it.”
After graduating from Plymouth High School in 2017, Lawrence attended East Carolina University, where she pursued a degree in communications with a concentration in public relations.
During her time at ECU, her love for the arts and setting others on a more creative path continued in her extracurricular campus activities.
“I was pretty involved in campus life,“ she recalls. “I was a part of the ECU Gospel Choir, I was a part of the Student Activity Board Committee… anything that could get me on board with other people and set the stage for them artistically, I tried to be a part of.”
As she tells it, she initially joined the institution to take up journalism but eventually reconsidered and changed course after learning that PR might be more to her liking.
It seemed a particularly worthwhile path, considering that a profession in social media marketing was quickly becoming the norm during her college days.
“When I was in school, social media was well into the stage where businesses were using all the platforms to advertise from,” she says. “So I started doing my research and getting internships concerning social media management and graphic design…it seemed like the best place for someone like me.”
As it happens, Lawrence’s time in higher education would also be marked by the COVID-19 global pandemic, which not only focused heavily on virtual services, but also shined a grim light on health in general.
Upon graduating from ECU, she reenrolled as a graduate student, this time pursuing her master’s degree in Health Communication. Significantly, she would work for the West Greenville Health Council, a non-profit that orchestrated a number of awareness projects about COVID-19 across Pitt County...