Sandy Shaw

"Life is not meaningful unless devoting it to children"; my motivation & inspiration to live my life by. Unintentionally, travelling through a lifetime of working with children about sums up my efforts, whether volunteer or professional. Going to college after high-school, changing majors at least five times, but always with a focus of helping youth. Every experience mattered and seemed to lead to my professional journey as Career Coach, the perfect place for me with purpose. True believer in "happenstance", as I moved from being Field Executive with Chesapeake Bay Girl Scout Council of Wilmington, to Program Director at Talbot County YMCA, to staying home to raise three children, tennis instructor for years, founder of Dorchester County Swim Team, Substitute Teacher for Dorchester County Public Schools (experience that led me to (so far) 27 years of public education), to Media Specialist, to Career Coach. Believer in "it's never too late to find your niche in the world"... I have found my place, the perfect position where I can impact students' lives. Helping students discover their own talents and skills which will lead them to happy, successful lives is my purpose. Being creative, thinking outside of the box, and having enough confidence in myself and my goals doesn't hurt when initiating program development to help kids find their way & pathway, especially while navigating the "murky waters of Career Coaching". What I have I learned in 65 years of living? Every single, solitary experience one has in life influences your pathway, sometimes in the smallest way, sometimes in the most magnificent way. Example: one semester in 1980 serving as Recreation Specialist Intern at Maple Shade Residential Boys' Home, made me discover my love for "making a real difference". Happenstance gave me opportunities that I could have turned my back on, but I didn't....even some, I may have wanted to, but I didn't. Stubbornness and being partly Portuguese, and that internal drive to p