My GIA Education

A few years ago during a long, cold, engagement-filled winter I found myself with too much snowed in downtime, and enrolled in GIA’s distance education program online. It was a great investment at a reasonable $185 per course, so I began Jewelry Essentials and Diamond Essentials. A bargain price for the breadth of information I received, and I was so impressed that I applied to the Diamond Grading Lab Course at the GIA campus. It would be a dream to attend the Jewelry Design and Tech course there, but really- who has an extra 6 months and $20k laying around?

Covering everything from The Four C’s to the history of diamond cutting techniques, these courses are a wonderful option for anyone beginning to explore the industry. I attended the GIA career fair at the Jacob Javit’s Center, and for a FREE event I was blown away by the content and resources provided. There was a panel of speakers from former students, to private jewelers, to the CEO of Kwiat, all available for discussion afterwards. A priceless experience which amped up my enthusiasm for the GIA as an institution, and my love of diamonds. 

I then went on to work at Tiffany & Co, followed by Stephanie Gottlieb, before branching out on my own in the summer of 2020.