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Professions, Politics, and Piano

After graduating with a double major in piano performance and Latin at Hillsdale College while teaching piano lessons in between classes, many wondered how a liberal arts degree such as I received would get me fully employed in the workforce during a significant economic downturn. I had paid my way through college and needed to start paying off my student loans, and quickly.

Thankfully, within a few short months after graduation, I was able to find employment in Chicago working as a Development Director at Northwestern Mutual. My main role in that particular job was to help coach new financial representatives in their first year of running their own small businesses. From there I was a part of the financial services industry for seven years, which all began, thanks to the college internship at Citigroup in New York City that peaked my interest in the business world. Once you add the internship and my interest alongside my solid background in music and translating Latin, my work life became very successful. It was clear my education provided me with a solid foundation in analytics and math that allowed me to transfer these skills into the world of finance.

With our move to my home state of Iowa and my continued work at Northwestern Mutual, I was able to begin participating in a favorite family activity: politics. I had a wonderful opportunity to fly to Washington, D.C. to speak to our representatives about insurance and investments, and ultimately it led to me working in the political sphere for five years in the county, state, and federal levels of government.

So how did I get from the professional insurance world, to politics, to returning to my first love, piano? In short, it's been a lovely journey of using my development background to understand how to effectively run a profitable business, using my political background to be aware of rules and regulations and taxes that may directly affect my small business, and using my God-given gifts and talents at the piano to play before others and helping students learn the basics of piano while appreciating the joys music can provide.

Since teaching at the age of 18 and fully investing in my piano studio while working full-time since 2013, I am now taking the plunge and becoming a full-time piano instructor. I am so excited to have the opportunity to teach not only in my home, but also through online lessons via Skype. I am pioneering a new way to teach to families all across the country, as well as the world, in providing a world-class education through technology.

Please join me on my journey as I grow my studio, encourage my students' growth in music, and find more creative ways to instruct.

It's going to be a very fun and exciting ride!

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