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SU graduate Carla Haase funds a scholarship with Orange-themed jewelry
Unless you wanted Otto the Orange dangling from your ears, finding Syracuse University-style jewelry has been nearly impossible, until now. Carla Haase, a 1987 graduate of SU, did something about that. She started creating handmade jewelry 10 years ago as a hobby. Now her 315 Collection of jewelry and watches sporting SU-themed colors and schemes supports the Carla Fischer ’87 Endowed Scholarship Fund.
From interchangeable watchbands to handmade orange-and-blue beaded earrings, her jewelry collection premiered during homecoming weekend, Nov. 10 to 13, at the SU Bookstore. Part of her interest in making jewelry has been to share the proceeds from her jewelry line with a needy student.
Haase, 47, attended SU almost entirely on merit scholarships. “I really wanted to go to Newhouse but my parents didn’t have a lot of money,” she says. “And the more academic success I had, the more my scholarship package kept growing.” By the time she was a senior, Haase says nearly all of her tuition was paid for.
After graduation, Haase moved to Vermont and then Trumbull, Conn., where she worked for General Electric as a media spokeswoman. She later taught classes through GE for learning and development. Upon receiving her master’s in adult education at Fordham University in 2001, she started her own consulting firm called Annex Learning that focuses on classroom-based training for employees. It is situated in Connecticut, but Haase often travels to meet clients in New York City. Despite her busy schedule, she still found time to make jewelry.
After contributing funds to SU for several years, Haase decided to open her own endowment fund and contribute proceeds from her jewelry line. “I always knew I was going to give money back to the university, but I didn’t know how,” she explains.
The Carla Fischer ’87 Endowed Scholarship Fund (Fischer is Haase’s
maiden name) benefits a dually enrolled S.I. Newhouse School of Public
Communications and College of Arts and Sciences female student with
financial need and high academic achievement. The student should also be
actively involved in the campus community. The profile fits a
student similar to Haase’s own college
career. She was dually enrolled in fine arts from the School of Arts and
Sciences at Syracuse University, and public relations from the S.I.
Newhouse School of Public Communications. The university’s financial aid
office has more information.
So far, Fischer has donated $4,000 to the scholarship, plus $1,500 from the 315 Collection sales. Besides home parties and her website, Haase is getting more attention for her store with the help of SU’s student-run public relations agency, Hill Communications.
Tara Fothergill, 21, the account supervisor, is a student at SU majoring in public relations who is helping Haase get the word out through social media and sales events. Fothergill says the agency is planning promotional events for the jewelry collection inside the Carrier Dome at 900 Irving Ave., and Schine Student Center at 303 University Place. Dates for the events are not yet confirmed.
Fothergill’s hope is that the jewelry brand will eventually become university-affiliated. “It’s a great cause,” she notes, “and I think Carla is living proof of these endowments that really help students live their dreams.”
Jewelry items range in price from $10 for earrings to $10 to $24 for bracelets. Rings cost $10 and $12, while watches cost $24.
Make sure to check out the 315 Collection online at www.315collection.com.
The Mane Event
Traci Rekik sits in a salon chair patiently still as Kayla Hogan weaves fake hair, platinum and blue, into a series of intricate braids on Rekik’s head. “I’m just free-styling right now,” Hogan says. The women, who are cosmetology students at Phillips Hairstyling Institute, 709 E. Genesee St., are playing around with a new design theme inspired by the Syracuse University men’s basketball season.
The aptly named “orange” hair actually encompasses a series of styles that use braided orange and blue hair, according to Steven Phillips, owner of Phillips Hairstyling Institute. The idea came to Phillips after he and his students recently completed a classroom segment on fantasy hair. After SU defeated Rutgers on Feb. 19, Phillips conjured an over-the-top style, a basketball hoop woven with blue hair with an orange “ball” of hair in it, and asked the students to figure out a better way to design it. The students delivered, actually coming up with an easier way to style it. Alas, it’s not available commercially since it takes three hours to create.
But Phillips did design two styles to celebrate the Orange that clients can request. One, called the “Syracuse Braid,” or the “‘S’ Braid,” is a simple, three-strand snake braid, which, done Phillips’ way, creates a repeating blue “S” in the hair. The other braid is made up of four strands that, when woven together, create an orange-and-blue striped braid. “It was something fun, current,” says Phillips.
Either braid costs $5 and takes about five minutes to style, says Phillips. It can be done on a customer’s natural hair or using what Phillips calls “spare hair” or fake hair, so it can be taken out. The hair is available in orange and blue and, in honor of the uniforms the team wore Wednesday, Feb. 22, against South Florida, platinum. “I think I bought all the orange hair in the city,” he says, grinning.
People interested in the “orange” hairstyles are welcome to come to the institute. It is open for walk-ins Tuesdays through Fridays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Rekik would like to be able to set up a booth at SU games and braid blue into attendees’ hair before games, but that’s a dream that will have to wait until next season, pending SU approval. They could get more credit hours, and promote the school, she says. “It would be cool,” she notes, “if we could do the cheerleaders’ hair.”
Meanwhile, Phillips says that the institute is more than willing to help a charity or fraternity or sorority on campus raise money using the techniques. “We give back to the community because they give a lot to us,” he says. “Hopefully, we can get the chancellor to wear one.”
For more information, call 422-9656.
—Sarah Loguidice
