Anina Cummings and Lauren Russell both completed the Disney College Program at Walt Disney World in Florida, USA.  Both consider themselves big Disney fans and both of them would recommend this paid internship to other college students.  But they also had different experiences doing the same program.  Join me to hear these back to back interviews with Lauren and Anina as they share their recommendations for people interested in applying for the program, the skills they think are an asset, their favorite rides, and what they learned working at Disney.  They also share their ..read more

Robb Wirthin is a graduate of the Air Force Academy with 21 years of service in the military.  He's also had a successful civilian career working for Ford as a senior technical leader in systems engineering.  But Robb's childhood dream was to become an astronaut.  His 3rd grade teacher inspired this goal when she assigned him as a class reporter on the space station Skylab.  Robb hoped the Air Force Academy would provide a foundation for NASA and he attended and graduated with honors.  But careers aren't always straightforward and Robb used the lessons he learned at th ..read more

Amber Bird always loved photography growing up - in fact, she spent every last penny after high school graduation to buy her first DLSR camera.  And she's been taking photos ever since!  Amber taught herself the skills she needed to take amazing photographs.  In fact, she recently added a beautiful, new studio to her business, where she can combine her love of natural light with funky backgrounds and lots of color.  In this episode, Amber shares how she's pushed herself to learn skills, expand her business, win clients and try new techniques.  Where she started out tak ..read more

Rebecca Johnson is a family nurse practitioner with Jordan Women's Health Center in West Jordan, UT.  She's also a wife and mother with 5 kids who are involved in everything from mountain biking and ski team to opera singing!  Rebecca earned her bachelor's of nursing from the University of Utah and worked as an RN at Boston Mass General in her early days. She then moved to CA with her husband and worked in the NICU at Stanford.  It was there she decided to go back to school at UCSF to get her NP degree. Rebecca has also taught undergraduate nursing students at UCSF and BYU and h ..read more

Kyle Ackerman is a Park Guide at Arches National Park in Southeastern Utah.  But his path to this career was as winding as any nature trail.  Kyle graduated from college with a degree in liberal studies and an emphasis in new media communications, or "journalism" as he tells everyone.  But he also loved photography and public speaking.  After a few years working in marketing, Kyle started as a seasonal worker at a national park and decided that was the career path for him.  With experience working in Flagstaff, AZ; Sitka, Alaska; and Death Valley, Kyle eventually made ..read more

Sharlene Wells first gained national attention when she won the 1985 Miss America title. But that was only the beginning of her varied accomplishments.  Sharlene now works as the senior vice president of public relations and organizational communications for Mountain America Credit Union, which includes overseeing government and community relations, something she has plenty of experience in. One of Sharlene's passion projects has been working with the US military to tell the stories of service men and women.  In fact, she shares a pivotal experience she had with a Vietnam vet just a ..read more

As the daughter of two teachers, K.C. Boyd didn't want to follow her parents into education.  But after various jobs, she was bored and unfulfilled.  It was then K.C.'s dad suggested she work towards becoming a school librarian, and she never looked back.  Now, after 20 years in the field, K.C. was just named Scholastic Library Journal's 2022 Librarian of the Year. K.C. is currently the librarian at Jefferson MIddle School Academy in Washington, D.C.  In this episode, K.C. discusses why librarians are so fundamental to learning and the impact they can have on overall studen ..read more

My mom has been my biggest supporter throughout my life and always listens to my podcasts.  But she also has a story tell - one that is full of difficulty softened by faith.  In 1973, my mom suffered a life-threatening emergency when she developed HELLP syndrome during her labor with my sister (that wasn't the term they used back then, so my mom is a case study in the medical books). Every Mother's Day since has been a gift, because she almost didn't make it.  In this episode, we talk about some of her memories growing up, her experiences working at Grand Canyon to put herself t ..read more

In this episode, I talk with Josh Allen, English professor and the author of two collections of scary stories for kids.  Josh's love of the spooky started when he was kid, watching all of The Twilight Zone episodes with his dad.  But it wasn't until much later in his life that he realized writing spooky stories was what he wanted to do as part of his career.  Now, Josh teaches creative writing at BYUI and continues to write scary stories for middle-grade readers.  We talk about why reading scary stories can be good for kids and why fiction is good for all us. Josh shares gr ..read more

In this episode I talk with Grammy-nominated performing artist and violinist Jenny Oaks Baker.  Jenny started on the violin at age 4 and was practicing 4 hours a day by the time she started high school.  Her musicianship and technique were perfected at the Curtis School of Music and later at Julliard for a master's degree, after which she performed as 1st chair at the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington D.C.  But combining motherhood and a performing career was difficult.  In this episode, Jenny shares how she came to forge the career she has now, one that supports mo ..read more