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Cindy Whitt - Lady With the Lens
by Carlee Macon
The once monotonous plain-white walls of the Student Life office have recently been papered with a myriad of familiar Mars Hill faces, from determined athletes to charismatic cloggers to grinning fans just having fun.
Cindy Whitt, administrative assistant in Student Life, is the photographer responsible for this change in scenery. With her own start-up photography business, and over 19,000 photo files on her laptop, Whitt has many pictures to share.
Whitt started out by shooting her children playing soccer, just using whatever camera she had at the time. Then, putting her tax refund to good use, she purchased a Nikon D70 digital camera. She bought a book and taught herself "fancy photo editing."
Now Whitt photographs everything from football games to clogging concerts to homecoming events; she was even the photographer for three weddings last summer, two of which involved Mars Hill College alumni.
"I'll hit anything I'm invited to go to-if people let me know, and I'm not in class, and it's not conflicting with my own kids," says Whitt.
Whitt now provides discs of pictures for students and staff at low prices. She adorns the discs with custom labels and loads them full of photos so the customer can pick and choose what he or she wishes to print.
Whitt says that the more pictures you take, the more quality photos you'll end up with. "At a football game I take anywhere from 400 to 600 pictures; at a soccer game, about 400. During the Lion's Growl I took 600 or 700."
The disc that she created that includes the Lion's Growl, Homecoming Court, and the Homecoming Parade contains over 400 pictures and costs just $5. "I like to make it to where they [students] will have memories from college…It gives me a lot of joy to let other people see what they're doing that's good."
In addition to holding down a full time job in Student Life, starting her photography business, and being a single mother of three, Whitt is also a full-time student here at Mars Hill College.
"It's hard to be back in school after being out so long-I've been out of high school for 23 years," says Whitt.
She started out after high school as a business major. Now, after switching from education to emergency medicine and even being accepted into a culinary arts program, Whitt has ultimately ended up where she began-majoring in business. But, Whitt admits that going back to school is tough.
"Don't quit school!" she now advises other students. "Finish it now when you're young. It's too hard to do when you have a family. Do it now." Whitt hopes to graduate in May of 2006.
Whitt is always happy to talk about her three children, Tasha, 17, James, 15, and Lacee, 13, and a photograph of the three of them is prominently displayed on her desk.
When asked about being a full-time professional, student, and single mother, Whitt thoughtfully replied, "You always feel like you're letting one of them down-and I don't want it to be my kids; they're very important to me. We've become closer since the separation."
She says her biggest life challenges have been "learning to run my own household and raising three kids by myself….I've gotten to know who I am and accept myself. I like who I am."
From going to college in Idaho to working at a doughnut shop, working in a machine shop to working on an ambulance, working at a detention center to working at Madison Middle School, from playing three sports in high school to playing women's league softball up until a few years ago, Cindy Whitt enjoys being involved and keeping busy.
One student who was present during some of the interview put it best by simply stating, "She's done everything!"
Whitt, who managed to answer phones, take messages, and run-off copies while proceeding with the Hilltop interview, is a self-proclaimed "multi-tasker": "I do several things at once. Don't procrastinate. I'm really bad for that. It just adds unneeded stress. I can relate with a lot of the students because I know how hard it is to get things done and have any kind of a life."
Surrounded by her many photographs, she spoke of how taking them really did "give [her] something to do", which she laughingly followed with, "as if I need something else to do." And as if on cue, just as the interview was wrapping up, she was once more called away by someone needing a new ID card.
Click for a Whittwoman Sampler
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