Academy > News > Stylist Magazine
Article in Stylist Magazine
Sometimes, it starts with a dream. The Academy for Salon Professionals, a L’Oreal affiliated Cosmetology and Esthetics school in Canoga Park, started just that way. Jill Murphy, the founder of the Academy, decided in 2005 to create a different kind of school. Jill’s goal was to use her 14 years of experience working corporately with Redken to change and improve her students’ lives through better education. Jill wanted to build the Academy’s reputation as the premiere school in the Los Angeles area, and she wanted her students to feel that choosing the Academy started them on the best path to a great career. Jill wanted to include the business side of the industry as well as the creative side, so that students could provide for themselves a career and not just a job.
By 2008, the school was a reality, but it was a tough journey. Jill never let anyone tell her ‘no,’ and she faced every obstacle head on. The economy was not cooperating, and making the dream into a reality was quite a task. Today, the Academy is a professional-grade facility that includes three classrooms, 50 workstations, separate manicure bar and pedicure room and a gorgeous spa room with state-of-the-art equipment. The Academy’s students are provided a high-end educational environment, and the school is the perfect setting for their fun and style-conscious clientele. As Jill says, “This is not yesterday’s ‘Beauty School.’” The Academy boasts modernized educational programs, a new industrial facility, and a wide network that helps to create the next generation of industry leaders.
The Academy strives to be one of the most desirable places to attend Cosmetology or Esthetics school. Its facilitators help coach and mentor the students toward a less traditional beauty-school education; the small class sizes alone set the school apart from other schools, as each class is limited to 15 students for cosmetology and 8 students for esthetics. The staff at the Academy has an open-door policy and high expectations for all students, because they know how important their role is in providing what the students need to be successful in this industry. Even Jill is very active on the salon floor coaching and mentoring the students to ensure that the school shares in her expectations of success for all. The salon floor runs just like a professional salon to improve the students’ skills, creativity, speed, and knowledge of business building, but most of all, each student learns in a professional environment, surrounded by staff who are invested in his or her success. The Academy wants its salon-service experience to be known as the most professional in town; they put pride into customer service and students continue to improve in that area while on the salon floor.
While the staff at the Academy works to create a successful student, their involvement continues beyond graduation. Part of the additional curriculum at the Academy is training in business, career and portfolio building, reception skills, and clientele retention. The Academy provides for students (both current and their very active and growing Alumni) opportunities for photo shoots to bring out creativity and build a portfolio. The Academy strives to build strong relationships with salons to help them build their staff with Academy graduates. Many salon owners have commented on how much more advanced the Academy graduate are when he or she starts working. The Academy’s motto says it all: “Dream out of the Box; Create with no Expectations and Live Beyond your Imagination!”
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