I have been surrounded by many mentors in my life who have ingrained in me the belief that, “good enough is never good enough”, this quote came from my beloved high school drama teacher Russ Wynn. His passing last year after a heroic fight with cancer left me saddened but also reflective on how he influenced by life. I have been fortunate enough to have many figures in my life that have instilled in me an ethic for hard work, dedication and perseverance. My parents always supported Mr. Wynn’s statement by telling me that no matter what path I choose to make sure that I did it with all of my heart. Over the years after I graduated high school, I lost touch with Mr. Wynn and I regret not expressing or even fully realizing how much that simple statement has impacted my life. The biggest turning point of my career was when that statement echoed in my mind and I made a choice, one that was hard, one that was not without sacrifice and one that required a lot of faith in myself.

I never could have anticipated the career path I ended up on when I graduated with my bachelor’s degree in elementary education but after instability in the teaching field and sometime pursuing early childhood education, I found myself in a coaching and training position. The corporate world was fast paced and there weren’t any colorful bulletin boards or songs to remember the days of the week (even though I could barely remember the day of the week most of the time), but I was there, and I was determined.

I used my teaching background to grow my success in my unexpected career path but something unexpected happened, we entered into the pandemic and all of my coaching and training along with all my colleagues were thrust into the virtual world of training. I was knowledgeable in some virtual learning tools but not enough to really support my team the way they needed me. I watched my team struggle to learn complex trainings via Teams and Zoom, I saw our training classes cut in half before we even got them to graduation and it weighed on me. I knew that there had to be a better way to train my team and that is when I took a leap.

There was much more to the world of online learning then I thought and educational tech was becoming a big player in the world of education, so I did my research on what programs I thought would best help me achieve my goals. I sought out the Learning, Design and Technology program at Penn State because I knew that I needed to educate myself to educate others in a world where virtual learning had become the forefront of learning environments. I quit my corporate job and took a job at Penn State that offered more benefits that aligned with my goal of getting my master’s degree and I have been focused on my goal of educating myself in the implementation of technology in education in order to be part of the solution in providing quality online learning to learners.