Mary French, such a lovely person! She was always in a great mood and is a great inspiration and a fantastic mentor. She made sure that we included in the organization and that we always felt welcome.
Julia: What would you say is like the most challenging part of the job?
Mary: It's a great job and it's a great place to work for. I mean all jobs have their pluses. I think its pretty unique where we're pretty little so we're not a huge organization and our leader is someone who's really creative and encouraging of us following our passions so we can try something new. I like when we make big changes or big jumps and that is really exciting and inspiring and also can be a little scary and overwhelming. So that is a challenge but also a plus. Sometimes your work can be completely like, oh nope, stop doing that. We're doing this now. It's good for you. Good. And even like as today, like theres still a lot to learn or I still learn like about myself and how to better myself. So, you know, I've got to really push myself to be flexible and open and not like take a negative stance and like a change rather than be like, oh gosh, I have to do that. I mean negative, just like do it and be glad that you can. So that's pretty, pretty good and challenging.
Julia: Did you have like a lot of support from friends and family with your decision to come into this profession and work at the fleet?
Mary: A lot from my older sister who previously came up, Elizabeth. So she studied art and then actually just ended up when she had children and decided that the job she had picked for herself doing graphic design in marketing. Wasn't something she wanted to do any longer and so she went back to school and got her credentials to teach to teach preschool. And this wasn't part of my following every step she makes. But I ended up in education as well. But, you know, just being close with her and talking about, making a change, not sticking to a plan and learning a lot from her as a teacher, I've helped me a ton. So she's been, she's been a big and important force in my life and very encouraging.
Julia: Do you feel successful?
Mary: that's a hard question to ask somebody. I felt a little bit like that drake song, like I started from the bottom now I'm here. Yeah. I grew up in the Central Valley of San Diego, California. There's a lot of poverty, the air quality's terrible. It's very unhealthy there. I had a challenging childhood and grew up with a single parent and three sisters, we just struggled and you know how, to make it work and live with very little. And growing up like that, your focus isn't necessarily like higher education and growth. It's just like make it you gotta meet your basic needs. So, I feel really lucky that I could find, opportunities that helped me grow and, have work that makes me proud. I mean, in addition to that, my mom and my dad actually, they both like really instilled like a saw a strong emphasis on community service and giving back. So I feel pretty lucky that I ended up in a position I feel like I'm giving a lot back.
Julia: So what's rewarding about your job?
Mary: So what's rewarding about your job? Um, so for me, seeing growth in volunteers is a big deal and it's really rewarding. You know, a lot of times with teenagers, with high school students, seeing people come in and kind of shy. I know that they have goals, they want to get comfortable with public speaking or they like science, but they can't talk to people because they're too shy and they want to learn how to share it and just seeing them like take the opportunities they have here and grow. That's really, really rewarding but also with adults you see that too, so people who are maybe I'm looking for a sense of community and sense of purpose because they're retired and see them really bond with the people here and do the same thing. Just take advantage of what they can do to learn and grow and try new things.