Michelle is regional vice president for Menttium, a Troy (Mich.)-based company specializing in leadership development, particularly for women in mid-management positions at major corporations. In her work, she uses the power of stories. She collects them from the leaders with whom she works, and she shares them with her clients. And she u
ses her own. Stories are a pathway to (and celebration of) two fundamental sources of power: self-knowledge and endless opportunities. Michelle found Kalamazoo College to be a place that nourishes the notion that one is meant for something great. The precise focus of that great notion may be obscure for a time. No problem. Clarification and self-knowledge are what the liberal arts help accomplish. And the endless opportunities of the Kalamazoo Plan also help reveal the particular nature of the greatness for which each student is destined.
One of those opportunities is the internship/externship program of the Center for Career Development. Most students do one; Michelle did two. Her first was an internship in the executive compensation department of General Motors in Detroit. For her second, she worked for IBM in Kalamazoo. She then returned to IBM (in Southfield, Mich.) for her Senior Individualized Project. The result of all these opportunities: by graduation she had built a résumé of work experience that made companies take notice. So much so that before her commencement she had three lucrative job offers to consider: from General Motors, IBM, and Michigan National Bank.
Her undergraduate academic classes continue to matter too, though not for academics alone. Professor of Economics Ahmed Hussen helped Michelle realize the power (and practice the process) of seeking help. “Asking for help I had always found difficult,” she says. “He helped me overcome that difficulty because he cared that I understood the concepts he was teaching. That was more important than grades. It's self validating to know that my understanding mattered to him.”
Outside her major (economics), Michelle took an English class that inspires her work to this day. “Professor Gail Griffin's ‘Women in Literature,'” she says. “I encountered women in those novels the like of whom I'd never imagined. They were strong and flawed, accomplished, intelligent, thought-provoking. They were leaders.
“We read a book each week, which scared me at first. Professor Griffin said that we'd like some and dislike others, but she taught us to respect all of the authors, for the courage of their ideas and the skill and will of making a novel.
“One particular novel the entire class, except me, disliked. I could relate to the women in that story; some reminded me of my relatives. And it was just fine to be a sole voice that day in class.
“That's what Kalamazoo College does. It provides powerful experiences that help you find your power.”
