By Hannah McLucas, Staff Writer
On Sept. 28, the Sigmund Weis School of Business welcomed alumna Sarah Derrick to speak about her experience working with luxury brands for the latest installment of their virtual speaker presentations.
Derrick is a production coordinator for LDJ Production.
According to their website, LDJ Productions is an “event management and technical production agency founded in 2001 by Laurie DeJong. Based in New York City, LDJ works with Fortune 500 companies worldwide with a variety of industries including fashion, beauty, tech, media, and luxury automotive.”
Derrick explained that she felt a lot of pressure to find a summer internship, so she began reaching out about opportunities within her network. She was actually able to find a connection through her aunt that led her to a summer internship at LDJ Productions. She described that in the luxury brand industry “it is all about just getting your foot in the door.” She said to take any opportunities offered and shine with it. As an intern, she helped with the day-to-day tasks in the office and ran a lot of errands. She also got an opportunity to work at New York Fashion Week with her company’s show team.
Once she graduated from Susquehanna, LDJ Productions hired Derrick as an assistant to senior producer Rachel Young, and they also asked her to help out in the company’s finance department. As time went on, she started getting involved with the company’s bigger clients like Discovery, Chanel and Kleinfeld Bridal. She also got involved in LDJ’s charitable foundation “The Paper Fig Foundation,” whose mission is to promote fashion and the fine arts as an engine for economic empowerment in East Africa.
Since her employment at the company, she has been promoted to production coordinator. Derrick credits Susquehanna for giving her such a well-rounded education that allowed her to succeed in her career.
Her well-rounded education began during her first year as she was a business major without any declared emphasis because she did not know what she wanted to do. However, she joined a few organizations on campus such as “Colleges Against Cancer” and a sorority. From there, she began planning events for these organizations and found that she loved bringing people together and thinking creatively.
“Get involved in different things because even if you aren’t sure of anything you’ll find new interests and meet new people,” she said.
She then spoke of her experience with Susquehanna’s Global Business Perspectives class, a required class for all first-year business students where they analyze a company and develop their initial business skills. When Derrick took the class, the company they studied was Burberry, a luxury clothing brand, which is where her interest in the luxury brand industry began.
During her sophomore year she declared her major as Luxury Brand Marketing and Management and gained experience as an intern for the Women’s Leadership Symposium.
