Possessing a natural talent for art, Sara Bertka’s high school, Bluffton High School in Ohio, had a well-developed art program that exposed her to many different options, forms and mediums of art. She started off on the path of fine arts, but she began to desire to make art a career after graduating in 2016. That was when Ms. Bertka found a school for graphic and digital design, pursuing a formal education at the School of Advertising Art, now known as the Modern College of Design, in Kettering, Ohio, where she graduated as valedictorian and attained an Associate of Arts in 2018.
Prior to earning a degree, Ms. Bertka was a contact graphic designer for BMoore Connected in Bluffton and designer for Marybeth’s Cottage in Jacksonville, FL, from 2016 to 2017, as well as a contract graphic designer for United Desert Gateway in El Centro, CA, and design intern for Totally Promotional in Coldwater, Ohio, in 2017. In 2018, she became a digital solutions group intern at Bank of Oklahoma Financial in Tulsa. Since then, Ms. Bertka continues to serve the bank as a business analyst II.
Active in her local community, Ms. Bertka was a small group leader for Youth for Christ, as well as a Sunday school/Bible study teacher for the Fellowship Bible Church of Tulsa. She served as a volunteer media team member for Cable Road Alliance Church in Lima, Ohio, from 2011 to 2016, also serving the church as a children’s Awana leader from 2012 to 2016, and was a photographer for the Guns & Ribbons Throwdown in 2017. In light of her recent undertakings, Ms. Bertka received the Daniel E. Johnson Memorial Scholarship for Excellence in Design and Academics from the Modern College of Design in 2016 and the American Graphic Design Award from Graphic Design USA in 2018.
Ms. Bertka attributes her success wholly to God. He has blessed her with amazing talents and opportunities that have allowed her to get rather far in her career in a short amount of time. She feels that she has taken advantage of and made great use of those opportunities that she has received in her career. Ms. Bertka has worked very hard to get where she is, and she has not been afraid to take the necessary risks to continue to progress in her life and career. Despite never being to Oklahoma, she was not afraid to take the chance and the job in a place that was unfamiliar. She had what she felt would be a great opportunity for her career.
Moving forward, Ms. Bertka sees herself continuing to grow the digital art department and design team at the Bank of Oklahoma. She would also like to extend their reach throughout the bank.
