Hi Everyone!
My name is Michelle and I am returning to college after many years (I will not say how many). This is my second semester as a transfer student at Penn State. I am majoring in Organizational Leadership. I am excited to be back at school and look forward to this class.
I grew up a midwestern girl in Wisconsin and moved to Dallas, Texas, during high school. I now consider Texas my home. I am a single mother of two boys, ages 18 and 14, and that alone keeps me busy. We also have recently added not one, but two puppies (English Bulldogs) to our family because I thrive on chaos. I enjoy entertaining and throwing big parties, particularly at Halloween, when we go all out. We often spend our weekends out on the boat at a local lake and come home exhausted from too much sun and too much water. As a family, we try to travel as much as our budget allows.
We are Italian and not a quiet bunch, so our household is loud and lively at all times. Cooking is a religion around here and creates some of my favorite family moments. We often cook together and will dance to music in the kitchen. We also are extremely competitive with one another and will often hold impromptu family cook-offs (think Chopped with familiar ingredients) to see whose dish is better. We also enjoy hunkering down on the couch with tons of blankets, pillows, and puppies to watch a good movie.
Perhaps one of the main reasons that I did not complete school the first time was that I did not have a passion for any career. However, I was always fortunate with the jobs I held. They were interesting, I gained knowledge, and generally, they paid well. I entered the financial sector early, and I have extensive real estate, title insurance, banking, and mortgage lending experience. Last year, as my own son started preparing for college, and we talked about the importance of getting an education, I realized that one of my life regrets was not finishing school for myself. These conversations coincided with a promotion I received at work into a management role. Where I previously just had a job that was fine, and it paid the bills, I had never experienced the joy of wanting to go to work and genuinely have a passion for being there. That changed with my new role, and I found myself wanting to become a better leader and grow professionally.
I currently work as a manager for a financial company and love every single day. I enjoy leading a team, acknowledging their hard work, and coming up with out of the box solutions. While Covid-19 has added stress to an already stressful and hectic life, it has provided a blessing in many ways. I was able to slow down for a bit and really look at the life I had built and the life that I wanted. I was able to spend more time with my children and have some enlightening conversations with them both. I realized that there was no better time to pursue my degree than right now, and there would be no more excuses.
I am glad to be here and wish each one of you a successful semester!
Hello Prof. and class!
I’ll be brief yet loquacious! I’m a 33 year old Navy veteran of Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom, married father of 3! I own a business consulting firm in Lancaster, PA where I help people launch, maintain, and grow their businesses through customer and employee satisfaction, management training, executive and CEO level coaching, and sales process development. I also host a podcast, The Slaymaker Success Talks, available on YouTube and most major podcast platforms, where I interview and get in the minds of people who have seen wild levels of success in multiple different areas. I am currently working on my first published works, a book dedicated to providing those just starting out in sales with the tools necessary to become a success in the sales world, no matter what market they are in or product they are selling. I do plan on a follow up book for those in management and an advanced sales book. We will see how it goes!
I play the didgeridoo, or at least attempt to. A hobby I picked up while visiting Australia. I am a massive movie buff and have been a Freemason for the past 11 years, but unfortunately, it appears Nicolas Cage’s “National Treasure” was purely a work of fiction, as I have yet to find any treasure, but I’m still keeping hope.
Definitely looking forward to this course and applying our lessons immediately to my professional, political, and personal life!