And has she worked directly with Vera Wang herself?

“I haven’t been, quote/unquote, introduced to Vera Wang,” Hoke said. “But I’ve been in the same room with her a number of times.”

It seems the small-town girl has really made it.

“The biggest thing that I’ve learned through all of this is that I really can kind of make my own way into any career that I want,” she said. “Even though I am from a small town because that intimidated me so much because I didn’t have any connections, and it is so much about networking.”

Hoke accepts challenges and builds upon her successes, she said. She recalled her high school music teacher, Kathy Bartol.

“She was just totally behind me. She boosted my confidence.” And her experiences at Vera Wang have been “a huge boost of confidence,” too.

Elated at the way her hard work is paying off already, Hoke expressed something Vera Wang herself might have felt when she was first starting out.

“Instead of sitting back saying, ‘Oh, someday this could happen,’” she marveled, “it actually is happening.”

-- Cindy O. Herman lives in Snyder County. Send e-mail comments to her at Cindyherman1@yahoo.com.