Morningside Connect

Catelin Drey, 2010 graduate, spent many hours backstage in Klinger Neal Theatre managing productions and serving as the president of the theatre fraternity, Alpha Psi Omega, her senior year. After graduation she remained active and involved with Morningside College and still holds great relationships with her professors.

To this day, she is asked to return to the theatre department to photograph productions for the archives and has also given presentations to photography classes about art and business. Professor Betty Skewis-Arnett from the theatre department was present at her wedding to Tyrel Drey in 2010, and she still maintains contact with Terri McGaffin and Dolie Thompson in the art department for various art and photography functions.

When asked why she stays involved with the college, Drey said, “I valued the real-world connections I was able to make while in classes and hope to provide the same to current students.” Since her graduation in 2010, Drey has seen the college change with an explosion of new development and building projects that has remarkably transformed the campus appearance.

Drey double majored in photography and Spanish. She initially chose to focus on photography because of her enjoyment for creating art. She chose Spanish because it would make her more employable. In retrospect, she chose these majors because of the connections that she is able to make with different people.

In order to increase her Spanish fluency and broaden her worldview, Drey spent the year after her graduation teaching first grade at a bilingual school in Honduras.  She returned to Sioux City in 2011 and was employed both in banking and social work. Both of these positions were based on her ability to speak Spanish.

Drey then started working part time for the City of Sioux City in order to focus more energy on photography.

In 2014 she officially opened a portrait photography business, Shirley Chic, and has steadily grown her services and client base in Siouxland.   In 2015 she was able to combine both of her degrees when she photographed two weddings where the majority or all of the family members spoke Spanish as their first language.