Mandy Roberts Ducote

Yes

After high school, I attended Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond. Graduated cum laude in 2004 with a major in Marketing and minor in Graphic Design. I started working in the real world in an advertising/design position, and have pretty much stayed along that track since then. I am currently in Marketing & Sales at a wholesale company in Hammond.

In March of 2008, I married my sweetheart of 5 years, Colten Ducote, in an outdoor ceremony in St. Francisville, Louisiana. We are happily married with one brat,...a 4-year old Min Pin appropriately named Taz. We just bought our first house in Baton Rouge! My husband is a Completions Fluids Engineer for Halliburton, which means he has a really erratic schedule and can be gone for days or weeks at a time. Not the most fun thing in the world, but when he's away, I stay busy with work, photography, and my continued church involvement.

While I was in college, I took a photography class, and of all the art classes and influences I'd had over my entire life, this was the one that really hit a nerve. Since then, my passion has developed into a successful business. So, I'm a marketing & sales rep during the week, and photographer on the weekends! My husband has since joined the madness, and we enjoy working together. We specialize in modern, creative portrait and wedding photography, and love every moment of it! We're working towards the dream of going full-time with it very soon! Wish me luck!

Check us out on the web: http://www.galeried.com.

After being home-schooled for almost 6 years due to my father's traveling job, my parents enrolled me at WHS in the fall of 1996 as a sophomore.

Because I hadn't attended a public school since 1st grade, the only thing I knew of public school was what the national news portrayed...kids carrying weapons, metal detectors at the doors, etc. On Day 1, I was so scared about being forced to go to public school that I had to sit in the guidance counselors office for the first two hours of the day until I could stop crying and be coaxed by my father and Mrs. Rowe to go to class. When I finally stopped the tears, I squared my shoulders and marched to class. By the end of the day, I had fallen in love with Walker and made tons of new friends. From that day on, I hated to miss school, even when I was deathly ill.

To this day, I count my days at Walker as some of the best memories and greatest days of my life! And I have you--my fellow students--to thanks for that!