New Directions Indeed!

Springtime.

It signifies strength, growth, rejuvenation. Can you think of a more appropriate time for New Directions Career Center to hold its annual Women of Promise fundraiser?

Or for that matter, can you think of a more appropriate honoree than Stephanie Barry?

After all, we’re called “New Directions” for a reason.

On April 19 Stephanie was recognized as our 2012 Woman of Promise, and when you hear her story, you’ll understand why she was chosen as this year’s winner. She changed her life from something merely to be endured, with “dead-end jobs, a terrible marriage, and no self-esteem,” to something to be celebrated. Quite literally, she learned to live her dreams. Or as she put it, “I felt empowered to move forward and meet my destiny.”

 

In 2007 when she entered the New Directions program, she was at a personal and professional low point in her life, with marital problems and a job that was going nowhere. “I went through the daily routine of my life as if in a dense, impenetrable fog,” Stephanie said.

But New Directions teaches women strategies that can change their lives. Stephanie says of her time at New Directions: “We learned the skills that would make us competitive in today’s challenging economy — everything from professionalism to self-marketing to effective interviewing. Our plan for change, for achieving our career goals, was very real by the time we graduated.”

And with those skills she gained something else: confidence and the ability to imagine a new life for herself. “New Directions Career Center (NDCC) taught us all a great deal about dreaming big and creating the lives we envisioned,” said Stephanie.

After graduating from NDCC, she began taking graphic design classes at Central Ohio Technical College and Columbus State Community College, eventually earning a certificate in digital media.

But that was just the beginning for Stephanie. As she put it, “These successes prompted me to dream bigger and bigger. I dreamed of Hawaii and a much different life.” Realizing she had outgrown her marriage, Stephanie and her husband divorced; she accepted a position as an instructional designer and earned her master’s degree at the University of Hawaii.

After three and a half joyous years living in Hawaii, she made a new home for herself in Silicon Valley and now enjoys a fulfilling career as an instructional designer, creating online classes for Altius Education. And her journey isn’t over. “I am still a girl who dreams big,” Stephanie says.

And why shouldn’t she? Why shouldn’t any of us? Stephanie may have received this year’s Woman of Promise award in recognition of her amazing accomplishments, but she could be any of us, any woman seeking self-sufficiency, a new beginning … a new direction.