Hello, I am Laurel Reid and I live in Henrico, Virginia where I am a single mother and have been coaching competitive swimming for seven years. As a coach to children four to eighteen years old it is my responsibility to lead them to personal victories in the pool while developing life skills such as perseverance, goal setting, hard work, dedication, teamwork, good sportsmanship, and community service.
This is my fourth semester at Penn State where I am working to complete a Bachelor’s degree in Letters, Arts, and Sciences with a concentration in linguistics. I am hoping to find work in translation and ESL instruction. As for my favorite leadership quote, I am drawn to the words of Ovid, “A ruler should be slow to punish and swift to reward.” In my experience as a coach, rewarding and complementing a job well done leads to respect and a motivation to fix one’s weaknesses.
As I close out this post I wanted to give you all a little more information about myself. As I mentioned above I have a daughter who is eight years old (and swims on my team). I enjoy lots of outdoor activities including hiking, canoeing, and fishing. I also love music and have a growing vinyl collection. As for an unusual hobby I am very interested in genealogical research. I have found the process of researching my family tree to be utterly enthralling!
I look forward to working alongside all of you this semester,
Laurel
Hi Laurel, it’s great to get to know some of your personal background. I look forward to working with you this semester.
–Brian
Laurel, Love that you are a swim coach! I coached a summer swim team a long time ago and really enjoyed it. I like how you see what you do as rewarding, I think anytime that we work with young people to see them learning and growing is always rewarding.
Looking forward to learning more from you throughout the course.
Michele
Love your hobby, I have been researching my family tree for almost 20 years now. It is quite interesting to find out where you come from, who your family was, and just where part of them came from. Mine had some eye openers in it. Good luck with both your research and your studies at Penn State.