White Jade Design Int'l

Laurel A. Rockefeller Biography

Laurel A. Rockefeller was born and raised in Lincoln, Nebraska in the early 1970s. The daughter of freelance writer John Wallace Rockefeller of Grand Island, Nebraska and home economics teacher Phyllis Ann Rockefeller of North Loup, Nebraska, Laurel's interest in writing and knowledge in general became evident very early. The Rockefeller family was very poor, yet lived in a middle class neighborhood that was originally on the southeast edge of the growing city. Until moving out and onto her own during college, the Rockefeller house near Holmes Lake was the only home Laurel ever knew. Despite the middle class appearance, life in the Rockefeller house was very challenging. John Rockefeller's income was very unstable and he stubbornly refused to work as anything other than a writer, even to support his two children. Phyllis Rockefeller had to work full time for clothing manufacturer Jantzen rather than care for Laurel during her early years when both would have most preferred her to be home. After working a full day at work, Phyllis Rockefeller would proceed to sew clothes for her children. Ever inquisitive, young Laurel was not content to merely play with her educational sewing and cooking toys, but wanted to learn to do the real thing. She became "mommy's little helper" with everything and learned home economics tasks like sewing and cooking before she could read or even reach the pedals on the sewing machine!

Likewise, as a pre-schooler, Laurel's talent for composing poetry and music quickly emerged though it came without encouragement. Laurel loved to sing and used music as a conduit for her emotions from almost the moment she could talk. When she was sad or fearful especially, Laurel would take walks alone and sing out her experiences, letting the words in her heart flow through music of her own creation. Later, as she entered elementary school and began to read, she would sneak down to her father's typewriter in the basement and pluck out poems. In second grade, Laurel was entered into a poetry competition by her teacher, the late Kay Kean and won at the district level for her grade. The poem: "When Snow Falls, My Puppy Runs." This trend continued, though no one took any positive notice of it.

People in Laurel's life feared her father (with good reason) and came to associate the man with the profession of writing. Consequently, as Laurel's talent showed through, the feelings people had about her father were transferred to Laurel. The worst profession, in the eyes of those in young Laurel's life, was that of a writer, far worse than less than legal professions. Instead of being praised and encouraged for her ability to write, Laurel was taught that the vilest, most disgusting profession on earth was that of a writer and that even if this were not the case, she would never make it as one anyway. Her passion for music was treated with a similar response. More respectable, but less possible than writing.

Even with all these odds against her, Laurel continued to hone her talent. As a teen, Laurel spent her time off from school writing novels, seven before the age of eighteen, and expanded on her year-round poetry and music writing. Despite the torrent of naysayers and those who refused to acknowledge any talent in her, Laurel was not daunted enough to stop doing what she loved. At the age of ten, she began working as a newspaper carrier for the Lincoln Journal-Star, receiving many awards for excellent service. During her junior high years, the opportunity to write for the Journal's newsletter, The Carrier Chronicle. Laurel took it and was paid $5 for her article. Not long after, Laurel changed from her natal Baptist church where her family attended to a nearby Bible church and quickly was writing articles and poetry for that church's publication, The Squeaky Wheel.

As a high school student, Laurel's strong academic progress and hard work towards the goal of making National Honor Society finally paid off. She received her first academic letter in 1988 and the second, the academic pin, in 1989, the honor convocation at which Laurel knew she was about to win her place in National Honor Society. During her junior year, she retired the paper route in favor of competing on her school's public speaking team. Two months before graduation from high school, Laurel received her Speech letter for competing in every tournament held during her senior year. Because it was, in many respects, harder won than the academic letter, it is this letter that Laurel prizes.

In January, 1991, Laurel Rockefeller began her freshman year at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, creating a writing major for herself through the Integrated Studies program in the College of Arts and Sciences. With a core of 24 hours in English, the same as regular English majors, Laurel supplemented her conventional writing courses with those in public speaking, non-verbal communications, broadcast journalism, aesthetics, ethics, music theory, acting, and stage writing plus psychology courses. The goal of the major: to write scripts for television, movies, and radio broadcasts of an educational nature and/or for family audiences.

In July, 1991, Laurel Rockefeller took her introductory course in Psychology as part of a summer program. One week into the course, she decided to follow family advice and declared Psychology as her second major, focusing her courses in the more philosophical and theoretical aspects of psychology over the bio-medical model. That same summer Laurel acquired a new parakeet/budgie, Frodo, to whom she gave speech lessons. Two weeks later, Frodo began to talk. Laurel went to the psychology department to learn more about this process and parrot speech. Under the mentorship of Dr. Daniel Leger, she began the path towards ethology and developed an unusual combination of ethology-humanistic psychology. She kept data on Frodo's progress and, after just 5 months, was outpaced by the bird who by then had learned over 40 words and phrases PER DAY.

The psychology bug bitten, Laurel abandoned the idea of becoming a writer in favor of a more practical, family-endorsed career as a counseling psychologist. In 1993 Laurel interned with an incest survivor's group and was all set to attend graduate school in Cambridge, MA, when she realized that a full time career helping people with their problems was not for her. Meanwhile, influenced by a number of engineering major friends and acquaintances, the computer bug had also bitten and Laurel spent a lot of her free time in early versions of chat rooms, message boards, and BBSes, the most popular of which was the one centered at the University of Iowa, the Iowa Student Computer Association (ISCA). Always interested in weddings and on a quest to become a bride herself, Laurel found herself learning as much about weddings as she was about computers.

In December of 1993, Laurel discovered her partial Asian heritage as long repressed childhood memories surfaced. Intrigued, she began attending cultural events for Koreans and Chinese. In the spring of 1994, Laurel went to see her minor advisor in the history department to discuss senior year classes. By then, Laurel had managed to take several history classes as either part of her general education requirements or as electives. The news was surprising: after the two Asian history classes she had already planned to take, one of which was a general education requirement, she was just short of a history major. Pleasantly surprised with all other major and general education requirements already fulfilled, Laurel declared history as her third major, taking Survey to American History during summer school at night despite an early morning broadcast journalism course. Ideas in America to 1865 was the logical second required American history class to take. Beyond that, only research methods and one more elective, a social history of modern China, were needed for the major.

It was just after the completion of her summer courses that Laurel decided to apply her knowledge into her own business, White Jade Floral and Jewelry Design. During a chance meeting on public transportation downtown to UNL in 1992, Laurel was introduced to gemstones and their meanings and practical applications. This had begun a hobby of study into how to heal with gems. But it wasn't until August, 1994, that Laurel decided to convert the acquired knowledge into a business venture. Investing into gemstone beads and other craft supplies, Laurel began to construct jewelry for others. Likewise, she began to make wedding veils for brides.

In 1995, Laurel graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. In April, 1995 she was the only triple major of the 31 inductees to the Alpha of Nebraska chapter of Phi Beta Kappa from the 2900 who received Bachelors degrees that year. Likewise, she was honored at a special honor's convocation by being given "superior scholar" status, signaling the top 3% of her graduating class and more than seven semesters on the Dean's List.

Upon graduation, Laurel moved to Iowa City, Iowa to begin establishing residency in the state of Iowa so she could attend graduate courses in the fall of 1996. It was at the University of Iowa library where the first website for White Jade was developed and the first FAQ articles were written on a combination of Mac and PC equipment. It was also while attending Iowa that Laurel stopped sewing and designing clothes for just herself and decided to add clothing to the selections at the White Jade website. Within four months, approximately six styles had been designed and prototyped on Laurel's sewing machines, including the style, V is Very Flattering which remains as the basis for the White Jade logo, even without the sash that creates the style's name.

With an expanding line of products, one would have thought the fashions would be the core reason for visiting the White Jade website. To the contrary, it was more the sound fashion and wedding planning advice given on the site, those FAQs written by Laurel that brought countless brides and families to what would become whitejade.com. In 1998, Laurel registered whitejade.com, a domain name she was able to keep for four years before a slick domain name reselling company snatched it during a period of financial difficulty.

While building whitejade.com, Laurel was approached by a representative of The Wedding Gazette, a major bridal netzine, and asked to write an article for the February, 2002 edition featuring Asian culture weddings. The guest writing offer solidified Laurel's status as an authority on Asian weddings and one of the few willing to give that information to the public without charge. Despite some reminders that certain color combinations are faux pas in Chinese culture, the Wedding Gazette edited and assembled the page to their liking and against the very advice given in the text presented, an irony that should not be missed when viewing the page.

After relocating to New Jersey in the summer of 2000, Laurel found a new market for White Jade: small business services. In addition to helping private individuals with their weddings, she discovered she could help fledgling businesses with their websites and more established conventional businesses enter the 21st century. Those achievements are outlined on the writing page of this site.

From January through the end of August, 2004, Laurel worked as a contract legal writer for a law office in Queens, New York. In August and September of 2004, Laurel had the privilege of working with some of the most talented and innovative creative teams during her internship at PACE, Inc. in Parsippany, New Jersey. Under the mentorship of Dean DeClue, she was step by step introduced to the world of pharmaceutical advertising and made important contributions to the 2004/2005 XALATAN campaigns for both the US and Worldwide markets and for the 2004/2005 XALACOM campaign. Along with the very gifted Glen McColgan, she helped in the first draft writing and analysis of the competitive matrix that will serve as the basis for the 2005/2006 US XALATAN campaign.

Writing has become the new focus for Laurel and White Jade Design, her company, but it stands to be one of many steps planned for the future. Laurel plans to start where Ideale Publishing left off and self publish The Adventures of Paolo Coqui if another publisher does not first make an offer to publish them first. Likewise, Laurel hopes to start a music group based on Asian classical instruments and begin performing professionally. Along with the group, there are plans to open a school of music and engage in specific charity works world wide.

Despite the obstacles her lofty plans involve, Laurel A. Rockefeller endeavors each day to put her goals into action. Teaching, mentoring, writing, creating, designing. These are the hallmarks of a very talented young woman, Laurel A. Rockefeller