Fashion designer Lepore to speak at YSU graduation

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Nanette Lepore, a Youngs-town State University alumna and a world-renowned fashion designer, receives an honorary degree and will be the featured speaker at YSU’s spring commencement May 19.

Graduation ceremonies for undergraduate students begin at 10 a.m., and commencement for graduate students starts at 2:30 p.m. Both ceremonies are in Beeghly Center. More than 2,200 students will receive diplomas.

Featured student speakers are Kaitlyn Fabian, who earns a bachelor’s degree in dance management, and Dru Perren, who earns a master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling.

After completing her studies at YSU, Lepore enrolled in New York City’s Fashion Institute of Technology, where she earned a degree in design. Bolstered by a $5,000 loan from her father, Lepore then set out to start her own line of clothing.

Today, Lepore has grown into an internationally renowned brand with boutiques in the United States, Europe and Asia. There currently are stores in New York, Los Angeles, Bal Harbour, Chicago, Las Vegas, Boston, London and Tokyo, with further expansion in Asia planned for 2012 and 2013.

Lepore continues to design in her atelier in New York alongside her husband, Robert, who helms the business side of the worldwide brand as its president. Manufacturing the majority of her line in the Big Apple, Lepore is an outspoken advocate for New York’s Garment Center.

Fabian is the first graduate of YSU’s new bachelor-of-arts degree in dance management. She is graduating summa cum laude and also is receiving a certificate in entrepreneurship.

Fabian was a valedictorian of her class at Boardman High School. She came to YSU as an undeclared major with a dance minor until the dance-management major was established in her junior year. She held leadership positions in the YSU Dance Ensemble, served as a student choreographer for the group and served an internship with the Ballet Western Reserve. She was hired last fall as dance enrichment instructor for the new Visual and Performing Arts program at Chaney High School in Youngstown, a position she hopes to continue after graduation, as well as continuing her teaching at a local dance studio. She plans to establish her own Christian-centered dance studio in the future.

Perren’s studies at YSU include a focus on clinical mental-health counseling with a specialization in counseling children and adolescents and autism-spectrum disorders.

After graduating from Northwest High School in 2005, Perren completed a bachelor’s degree in psychology at Ursuline College in 2009. As a member of Chi Sigma Iota, Perren was selected as the Most Outstanding Graduate Student in 2011. She has served as a graduate assistant in the YSU Counseling and Special Education Department. Perren has presented research at the local, state and national levels on topics ranging from autism and life skills for individuals with disabilities to discrete trial teaching and differential reinforcement.