I grew up in Michigan. If you ask me where I'll show you on my upheld hand, like Michiganders do. I still love to visit the Lakes.
When JFK died, I was 5 years old. I graduated high school the year our nation celebrated its bicentennial.
Before college, I had already done all kinds of work: picked strawberries, pumped gasoline, attended mentally retarded patients at a resident hospital, sold paintings in an art gallery.
I spent a year at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, then went to Ferris State, a 4-year college in Big Rapids, Michigan. While in college I earned room and board as a nanny, and later by assisting a paraplegic woman. A few hours a week I volunteered at the campus radio station as an announcer. I finished in 1982 with a B.S. in Business Administration, an A.S. in Applied Arts and Sciences, and a cosmetology license.
I had a great time in the salon business. I moved to Atlanta, worked in salons and for manufacturers of salon products. I met my husband, a biologist and college professor. We spent a couple years in Phoenix then came back east just before the birth of our first baby. We have three children now, a daughter and 2 sons.
A book I wrote about hair coloring, based on my experiences coloring 1000s of clients and models, was published in 1999. I networked, learned a little about computers and did research in art, medical and technical libraries in order to write it.
As my children grew, I volunteered at schools, church, scouts, Atlanta's Center for the Visually Impaired and elsewhere in the community. I started substitute teaching in 2003 and began looking for a master's program, looking for my future.
This program has been truly challenging and more rewarding than I could have imagined. What I have enjoyed most is the chance to pursue issues of personal interest to me to create something of service to others.
My instructional design project for EDIT 6170 morphed into a significant study of Cambrian trilobites. My internship allowed me to design science kits for an elementary school, one for 3rd grade rocks and minerals, and one for 3rd grade fossils. The short, multilingual film and booklet I made for EDIT 6600 is used by Barrow County elementary ESL teachers. My first semester, a short article coauthored with Jim Brown and Donna Ahlrich was accepted by the Teachers' BRIDGE.
I am grateful to have had opportunities to work alongside so many exemplary professionals, both faculty and students, at UGA. I am grateful, also, for my supportive husband; he has earned this degree, too. I hope now to be a good steward of my education.
