I will always tell people how grateful I am for my education. Completing my degrees has been one of the most impactful accomplishments of my life. I finished both my undergraduate (communication and writing) and master’s degree (Organizational Leadership & Strategic Management) at the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, Minnesota. As with all blessings in life, St. Kates came into my life at just the right time, when I needed it most. I was a single mom, raising my son from the time I was eighteen years old. I had dropped out of high school at sixteen, my senior year. At seventeen I found myself working as a cashier in Osco Drug in Great Falls, Montana and pregnant. I decided to head back to Wisconsin and was able to complete my High School Equivalency Degree (HSED) to be able to graduate by the time I was eighteen, with my newborn son by my side.
I worked in various jobs, cocktail waitressing, modeling, and doing office work. I worked in a truck stop waiting tables and cashiering. I knew that I needed to do more with my life, more for our lives. At twenty-one, I was accepted into the state university and began college as an art major and dance minor because it was the only thing I knew I was good at. I went to school full-time and worked full-time, all while raising my son as a toddler. There were many times that he ended up going to class with me because I didn’t have, or couldn’t afford, a babysitter that day. For two and a half years I did my best to keep all the balls in the air. I went from an art major, to a journalism major, to a business major. Eventually I burned out, I think it was calculus and lack of support that finally did me in.
Even the couple years of college I had completed helped me to find better and better jobs, but I knew I needed to finish my degree and do more. I had always had a burning desire to help people and knew I could make a bigger difference.
It was then I found St. Kate’s weekend college program. I was able to work full-time during the weekdays and go to school full-time on the weekends. And most importantly to raise my son and provide a better life for us. After finishing my undergraduate degree, I decided to take only a few months off and continue on for my master’s degree. I decided to go into the MAOL program, the Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership. The purpose of the MAOL program, which is very similar to an MBA, but with the intention to, “engage the heart, mind and spirit of an organization—its people,” as well as creating graduates who, “will be fully prepared to create effective change within their companies and industries at large.” I knew that was the path for me. We learned to be effective, ethical and enduring leaders in my program at St. Kate’s. With my education and growing experience in volunteerism, women’s studies, and leadership in organizations, I was able to set forth on my path to make a difference.
I mentored teen moms and volunteered for domestic abuse programs and went from working as a Customer Service Manager to eventually becoming an Executive Director in Domestic Abuse programs. I worked with personal training clients and taught yoga around my full-time job. I taught classes and developed women’s self-esteem and empowerment workshops. I wanted to incorporate holistic wellness and healing into the work that we did with victims of violence. Eventually, when my son was grown and in his third year of college, I left Wisconsin to go to Dallas, Texas, with the intention of making wellness my full-time focus in my work.
I put my house in Wisconsin up for sale, packed a 17-foot U-Haul and towed my car behind it 1300 miles down to Dallas with a hundred-pound Mastiff as my only companion for the trip. I did not have a job lined up before I got to Texas, but I knew I could always whip out my bartending skills and make some money while I sought the job and the life that I was being called here to live. I was able to personal train clients and began working at the YMCA as a wellness coach, quickly to become a membership and wellness director when the position opened.
Now, twenty- three years later, after I first was accepted into college, I am living the life that I envisioned early on. I live with the love of my life and we are a happy family, I work as a Wellness & Benefits Coordinator for the City of Mesquite, Texas and still do work as a wellness coach and personal trainer around my full-time work and I offer corporate wellness services to organizations looking for presentations and programming. I truly believe that when we set out with purpose and intention, we will find the path we are supposed to be on.
Liz Jones is the Wellness Coordinator at the City of Mesquite and a wellness professional in Rockwall, Mesquite, Wylie and surrounding areas. She is a Certified Workplace Wellness Ambassador, writer, certified yoga instructor, personal trainer and wellness coach. She holds a Master’s Degree in Organizational Leadership and Strategic Management, with a graduate certificate in Ethics and Leadership. Her undergraduate studies included communication, business, writing, art, fitness, and dance. Liz Jones can be reached at: [email protected] or at her website: www.lizjones.co.
