Manager, Talent Management at Scentsy, Inc.
I started my career with a focus on secondary education and I thought I would spend my entire life teaching high school. When I went job hunting, after a short period of time at home with my kids, instead of landing a teaching job, I ended up as a trainer for a local health care system. I eventually moved into the Organizational Learning and Development department where I met my boss (and mentor), who is a graduate and huge proponent of the Boise State Organizational Performance and Workplace Learning (OPWL) program. When I told her that I had learned to love working in the adult learning field, she encouraged me to apply to the program, which I did. It was one of the best decisions I have ever made!
While my undergraduate education was a good foundation, the OPWL program really changed my mindset. I went from looking at training as THE solution to looking at it as ONE of the many possible solutions. I learned how to identify performance gaps, assess the root cause of those gaps, and pinpoint appropriate interventions by which to fill those gaps. I can speak intelligently when someone asks how I am going to measure the success of an intervention – and I can do it!
At a conference I attended recently, I sat with a group of graduate students. They were discussing their graduate programs and every person at my table agreed that their programs were too theoretical and they had not been able to apply what they were learning. When they turned to me I told them, “I have been able to use almost everything I have learned at work!” I talked about how the OPWL program provides an education through practical application. I shared with them the projects that I had worked on and we talked about how rich the educational process is when you can immediately apply what you are learning. At the end of the conversation, I know they all wished they had enrolled in the OPWL program instead of their respective programs.
I am so glad that I chose the OPWL program! Thank you to the amazing professors, staff, and students that made my experience in this program so valuable. I still use what I learned in this program every day and I now have a network of like-minded colleagues that I know I can call on at any time for help!
Award
Outstanding Graduate 2014