Click here if you are interested in learning about my teaching experience.
Some years ago, I read somewhere that too often a person equates identity with occupation or job. Whenever I meet someone new, I am always questioned first and foremost about my occupation. I had no problem responding to that question until I lost my managerial position in a healthcare facility due to a merger while in the early stages of my career. All of a sudden, I didn’t have an answer!
Is your job your identity?
During the almost two decades since that merger, I’ve learned not to ask new acquaintances first what they do for a living but rather ask what keeps them busy. As the conversation naturally unfolds, I easily discover if that person is employed or has a family simply by the way the question is answered. What is most important will be mentioned.
What keeps you busy?
So, if you were to ask me what keeps me busy, we could talk for hours.
For example, I’ve been on a health and nutrition kick for a while now and have lost 24 pounds in the last 10 months with a change in diet, more diligent exercise including mixed martial arts, and focused determination. I’m thrilled to be back to my high school/college weight because I didn’t think I’d ever get there again. Since you wouldn’t consider me a tall person, losing that weight has been life-altering! I think I’ve finally rehabbed more than ever after another driver T-boned my car while I was driving seven years ago. Who knew it would take me six months to lift a gallon of water and a year to walk without pain?
I’ve traveled the world extensively with family and friends to places far and wide including some less mentioned places such as the Galapagos Islands, Bonaire, Tahiti and Bora Bora. The rest of the travel has been to many places in Europe and the Western Mediterranean (loved Mallorca!), parts of Asia and South America, most of Canada, and, at last count, 44 of the 50 states in the USA. Some of that travel has been in the best of hotels while some of it has been on the tightest budget. I even hiked to the top of Mt. Vesuvius in Italy while miserable and taking allergy medication since it was the one thing my husband wanted to do while we were there!
I’ve studied music since I was three years old, having learned how to read music before I could read the words on this page. Although I studied classical piano until college, my musical passion is truly voice. I’ve sung as a soloist and in choral groups for more than 20 years of my life, performing in talent shows as a child, with a symphony orchestra for a year after moving to a new city, in weddings to make extra money right after college and in a funeral choir when I was starting a new life on the other side of the country from where I grew up.
I love to learn new languages and have studied French, Spanish, Latin and Greek in school, but I have tackled Japanese, Norwegian, Italian, and German on my own. I insist on learning enough of the language before traveling to a foreign country to find my way around the city if I were to get lost.
I’ve worked my way up through many different career paths: healthcare manager, staffing specialist, insurance agent, college professor, home-based business owner, even starting out packing boxes for UPS pickup in the garage of a small business. Some of the positions have been in typical corporate cubicles as well as in hospitals; offices for doctors and dentists; community and state colleges and private universities; public high schools and middle schools; and from home online.
I’ve written copy and recorded radio ads and commercials. As part of a Math Science Partnership grant, I co-authored a 250-page data analysis module, participated in curriculum development, gave presentations and had my writing published. I’ve given motivational speeches and lectures for different organizations and have held fundraisers on behalf of organizations I support with my home-based, direct selling businesses.
Some of the jobs ended because I chose to change directions; others because I was forced out by the company or department. Although some of the career paths lasted less than two or three years, I pursued teaching for almost seven years and left the education system after my marriage required a move to a different city 30 miles away and that other driver T-boned my car. I learned so much while teaching more than 2000 students in undergraduate and graduate courses in math and business, but I am most humbled by the three teaching awards – two regional and one national – that I earned from three different institutions all within one year. One of my students had written an essay without my knowledge and submitted it to Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers…and I was chosen! Can you imagine my excitement?
Click here for more details of my teaching experience.
I’ve earned a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts, a master’s in mathematics (statistics and probability) and an MBA, with a significant portion afforded through earned scholarships. I’ve volunteered my time and efforts in nursing homes and homeless shelters over the years, and I’ve participated in many local charity events through a service club.
In my fun time, I’ve participated in three book clubs (one of which I started with a friend) and love to read novels and solve Sudoku variant puzzles (anything but the typical 9×9 box). I’ve recently discovered a renewed curiosity in historical eras and am seeking new television shows to educate as well as to entertain me.
I’m interested in simple recipes and ways to stay healthy and vibrant, alive and well. I try to live life on my terms without compromising my ideals and have made changes in my life to reflect that. I strive to leave more behind for the world around me than I take with my life by learning new ways to reduce, reuse and recycle in my everyday living.
Since I come from a family with relatives living in six different countries around the world, I’ve developed a true appreciation for other cultures, religions, and viewpoints. Although I’m a big-city girl at heart, I’m an actual small-city/countryside girl in reality. I pride myself on excellent work, innovative living, and smart spending. And all of that requires that I be incredibly organized.
What can I say? I’m a person who attempts to face each and every challenge life has presented with plenty of effort and determination, grateful for the gifts I’ve been given and the opportunities I’ve had, self-motivated to be the best me I can. I’m aware of the many blessings I’ve received and have a very private manner of expressing my religion and my faith in the afterlife. And although I’ve done a lot in my years, I still wonder what comes next.
I cherish my life exactly as it is and value my quiet time more than ever before. My life is still unfolding…but I think I’ve started the messy phase: where my hair isn’t quite perfect all of the time and my clothes aren’t ironed to a crisp. I’m finding new things to interest me and working on accepting life as it comes. What other options do I have?
Thanks for visiting Marienel.com and for allowing me to share with you all that is now common sense to me. My hope is that you will find something here that relates to your experiences and that you will share my website and thoughts with others. Come back and visit my site often as I am consistently posting new material. And, if my writing touches your life, whether in a small manner or with a big splash, I’d love to know. Perhaps you’ll find some ideas that will help you to become the best version of YOU!
I advocate a participative leadership style
The first five years of my career were spent in healthcare management. In my first position in a private dental practice as office manager, I was responsible for the daily operations of the front office, including all scheduling, insurance billing and accounts receivable. This job required OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) certification and CPR training. I worked directly with the owner when hiring new assistants and facilitated in the orientation of all new hires.
After three-and-a-half years, I wanted more experience in a larger practice and moved on to a front office manager role in an established ophthalmology practice. At the time, this company was in the process of merging with two other established practices and was attempting to standardize the office procedures of the new corporation while satisfying all eleven physicians. I was responsible for managing the front office staff at one of the locations that served more than 100 patients a day, and I reported to a facilities manager who was responsible for all three locations but was not usually on-site.
My next position as a staffing manager for an international accounting/finance placement corporation enabled me to work with many diverse individuals from all walks of life. My task was to find the jobs, to find the people, and to connect the two.
Although I was assigned five counties and given a list of companies and their CEOs and CFOs that had previously used our services, I still needed to develop a relationship with each of those executives by getting past their gatekeepers. I also needed to cold-call to find new clients. After I connected directly with those in charge, I met with them to find out more about their work. The information garnered from these meetings allowed me to find the perfect candidates for any future open positions at their companies.
Ideally, if a staffing need arose, that CEO/CFO would remember to call me and to ask for temporary help. Often, a temporary placement would result in a permanent position for the right person. In that situation, it was also part of my responsibility to negotiate a conversion fee paid by the company to my employer for the placement.
In addition to the relationships I developed with the heads of those companies, I also needed to foster relationships with placement directors at local offices, colleges and universities to find the perfect candidates. Interviewing candidates, checking references, evaluating job performance, and acting as a liaison between the company and the candidate before, during, and after a placement were key aspects of my position. This job allowed me to practice diplomacy and negotiation while maintaining a tactful and professional manner. Keeping all parties happy was essential to my success.
Throughout the grant work described in A Grant Full of Thoughts, my role in the classroom was to facilitate the learning process by helping the teachers with any content or delivery questions. I would observe them teaching their subject material and interject suggestions during their presentations when necessary. If they were uncomfortable presenting a topic or made errors in their explanations of a math concept, I would find a way to pull them aside and offer corrections before the class period had ended.
Although I did not feel as if I were an expert, I was viewed as an authority on the subject. If the errors that a teacher made caused the students to view that instructor in a less than admirable light, I tried to lead by example and made sure those students knew that mastering subject matter takes time. A teacher learns the subject by teaching it more than once; it is only right that we respect the willingness to try and the effort it requires.
As a home-based business owner in direct selling, part of my commission is earned by recruiting new consultants to join my team. It is essential to their success that I help them to start their businesses and be available to answer any of their concerns while offering suggestions for building their customer base and increasing customer retention.
During the course of my five years of direct selling, I have spoken with hundreds of individuals about the business opportunity and have recruited consultants in different parts of the country. I have spent many hours mentoring and training consultants through group meetings, coaching calls, and individual sessions. I have served as a guest trainer several times at other consultants’ team meetings, giving 45-minute presentations with my tips for building a business. I have also given many motivational speeches during the course of the last ten years, even before I started working in the direct selling industry. My business has grown even during challenging economic times because of four key practices:
1. Excellent customer service
2. Consistent follow-up
3. Not taking a rejection of my business proposal personally
4. Keeping open lines of communication
With all of these roles, I would describe my leadership style primarily as participative. I want to know what my colleagues and team members are thinking; I incorporate their suggestions when appropriate into my final decision. I try to encourage rather than reprimand or question others’ actions and motives if I do not understand what they are doing. I am principles-driven and hold myself accountable for being as professional as possible at all times.
I give credit where credit is due, do not ask an employee or team member to do something that I would not do or have not already done in the past myself, maintain a healthy sense of humor as much as possible, ensure the dignity of all involved in the interaction, and try always to act with compassion, empathy, and gratitude. I do not always have the answers nor do I expect to know everything; therefore, I am quick to ask for help when necessary.
When bad days occur as they sometimes do, I recall the many thank-you notes, cards, emails, and evaluations that I have received over the years thanking me for my contributions. While there is no substitute for hard work and the work itself may be its own reward, it is also an amazing feeling to realize one’s efforts have bettered a life.
My Teaching and Extracurricular Activities Experience
Early in my career, I experienced job loss during a corporate merger, resulting in a desire to change fields from healthcare to something else. Since the something else had yet to be determined, I researched and applied for jobs within nine different industries. During that process, I encountered an ad for a part-time instructor at The University of Akron, which appeared to be a good temporary opportunity.
By the time I received the call to interview with the university, I had already found a full-time position and was completing my MBA. I declined at the time but received another two phone calls from the same department head during the next year. I finally accepted the part-time position within weeks after finishing my MBA.
Before I knew it, I was enjoying my time in the classroom even more than my experiences in the corporate world. I decided to contact other universities and received additional offers to teach part-time. All of a sudden, I had more than enough part-time teaching contracts to constitute a full-time schedule. I had created a niche for myself teaching any math or business course that needed an instructor while simultaneously working for five different universities.
Throughout my six and one-half years of teaching at the college/university level, I taught 87 classes in math and business. I clocked more than 285 credit hours of teaching experience during that time, serving more than 2000 diverse students. In my remedial algebra and developmental math courses, I had students that had barely graduated from high school and had done poorly in their college placement tests as well as adult learners that were returning to the classroom after being downsized from a long-term position. Many had previously failed these same math courses. I also taught numerous students with disabilities who needed individualized attention, including defined educational plans from the campus disability support center. Others were the first students in their families to pursue a college education. Some of my students did not have English as their first language. These students needed every ounce of my patience, encouragement, support, and faith in their undiscovered abilities to work through the obstacles that had led to their failures in the past.
In the higher-level math courses (trigonometry, pre-calculus, statistics and probability), the circumstances differed. These students were intelligent but often bored. They did not want to be taking my classes but needed the prerequisites to qualify for their chosen majors. I researched many ways to reach these students and found myself exploring new avenues to engage them in the learning process. When I found ways to make my classes more interactive and work with these students individually each time we had a class session, I saw marked improvements in their attitudes and their efforts to master the course content.
Although the aforementioned situations were demanding, I found even more of a challenge at the graduate level. My graduate math and business students often had more experience in the workforce than I did but needed the graduate degree to earn promotions or increases in their income. I am most humbled by an unsolicited email that I received from a graduate student at the end of an Operations Management course that I had taught. He had been an operations manager at a corporation for more than fifteen years when he entered my classroom. I could hardly imagine that I could possibly teach anything new to someone with his level of work experience.
His email thanked me for finding ways to make the class think outside of a typical classroom paradigm including the use of a game show activity I had created. He had noticed my passion for teaching and my desire to help my students become life-long learners. He commented that it was obvious teaching was not simply a means to an income for me; there was much more to my reasons for being in the classroom. To this day, I am still amazed that I was able to affect the learning of someone with his experience during the only Operations course I had a chance to teach.
In addition to my time spent in a college setting, I jumped at the opportunity to expand my horizons by working on a Math Science Partnership Grant during four of those years. My experiences, working with middle school and high school teachers and their more than 500 students under that grant, are outlined in an article I wrote entitled A Grant Full of Thoughts. The grant allowed me access to underprivileged, inner-city schoolchildren, many of whom came from either single-parent homes or ones with little parental involvement. These students needed to feel connected, appreciated and worthy of attention in order to succeed. It was my job to do whatever I could to keep the issues from home at bay so that they could pay attention to the challenges of learning while in school.
The basis of my extracurricular choices has always been to try new things and to meet new people. As a member of a dance group during several of my childhood years, I relished in the results of teamwork and synchronized choreography when our group won different competitions. A chance to volunteer as an assistant to the activities director at a nursing home during my four years of high school heightened my awareness of how little kindnesses can make such a difference. My love of reading from an early age prompted me to participate in three different book clubs at various times in my career, one of which I started with a friend. While dating someone whose family had started a homeless shelter, I had the opportunity to serve meals during the holidays to the less fortunate.
My interest in competitive sports was overshadowed by my pursuit of classical piano and the opportunities to compete in international music venues. One of my most favorite experiences has been singing; I have more than 21 years of vocal experience. Many of those years were spent in a cappella choirs and in a solo cantor role. Although I made mistakes in the words of a song from the musical Camelot during my audition for a symphony chorus position, I still earned a coveted place on the roster for one season.
My year serving as a member of the Board of Directors for a nonprofit organization bringing the theatrical arts into inner-city schools afforded me more experience in the collaborative process required to reach a consensus before implementing a course of action. My love of languages and resulting study of quite a few of them, coupled with many opportunities to travel the world throughout my lifetime, has deepened my appreciation for other cultures. Lastly, an attempt at informational interviewing while I was changing careers showcased a hidden talent that played over the airwaves for a while – my ability to write copy for a radio ad. I consciously choose to try new things and am exhilarated by the results of my creative processes. Nothing ventured; nothing gained.
Throughout all of these experiences, I have never failed to give my complete effort to the task at hand. I have worked hard at every opportunity I have had and have created opportunities for myself when there were none to be found. Although I have never worked professionally with K-5 (kindergarten through 5th grade) students, I have a wealth of experience gained through time spent with my 20 nieces and nephews who are all under the age of 14. I have also witnessed their struggles in learning to read and to master the basics of mathematics as well as the struggles of their parents in helping them through these formative years.
Because of my time spent in the classrooms of middle schools, high schools, colleges, universities, and graduate programs, whether inner-city public or private institutions, along with my many positions in different corporate settings both as a manager and as part of a team, I have some experience in what lies ahead for these children. It is my goal to instill a love of learning for a lifetime with every child that I encounter in my daily life, hoping to affect change at the beginning of the learning process. Perhaps, some may avoid the same educational gaps that my teenage and adult students experienced.