Working from scratch didn’t faze Studdard because she relied on her passion for photography and the arts to pour into her students. Studdard earned her bachelor’s degree in photography from Mississippi University for Women and went on to start her own photography business in 2005. She also taught art at Annunciation Catholic School for four years before moving to Caledonia Middle School, where she taught for six years. She admitted she didn’t know very much about the CTC, but she said the possibilities intrigued her, even though she had never taught high school students. “For me, it is about self-expression in whatever form that may look like because it is a multi-faceted world,” Studdard said.