Becoming - The Blog

Becoming Interview: Amy Dinning – The Glue that Jump Starts Careers!

 

 

This week Amy Dinning is in the hot seat!  I met Amy through our mutual friend Brenda Grove, and I wanted to share with you all her love of education and helping others.

 

 

Tell us about a cool project you are currently working on.

I have two projects I would like to tell you about.  At work I am creating a year-long leadership development program for college recruits and early career employees.  The program is different because it incorporates a bunch of different ways to learn, not just classroom training.  It includes action learning projects, training courses, mentoring, a philanthropic team building exercise, encouraging innovation through improv, reflecting in a learning journal, learning directly from leaders, competency assessment and individual development plans, and utilizing an online collaboration tool.  It is quite fun and challenging to create.

 

The other project is my ministry.  I created a job search workshop called Jump Start Your Job Search last year to provide help and hope to those in job transition.  I assumed it would be a one-time program, but it has now been offered 4 times and I have acquired 3 corporate sponsors!  The participation has grown to over 120 people.  Jump Start came out of my own transition journey these past three years as I have worked contract positions while trying to find my next gig.  Brian, the author of this blog, was one of our fabulous presenters at this April’s workshop, and I have already started to plan for next April.

How would you describe yourself?  What words would you use?  What is your brand? 

My value proposition is to help others to grow and develop.  I am very motivated around helping people and making an impact.  I also believe that I am a connector – people to people, people to ideas or information.  One friend called me the “glue” since I am always the person who gets everyone together – I organize the reunions.

 

What are you passionate about? What type of work makes you jump out of bed in the morning and/or stay up late at night?

I am passionate about learning – my own learning and others learning.  I love to create an environment that is fun and interactive with lots of practical application.  I enjoy creating new training as well as facilitating and helping people to learn new skills and behaviors.

 

 

What is your source of inspiration?  What drives you forward?

My inspiration is God.  He created me with gifts and abilities that I want to use for his glory in my work life and my ministry.  I believe that I am the closest I have been to being fulfilled in what I am doing at work and with Jump Start.  I am most fully utilizing my gifts and abilities and really enjoying what I am doing and I feel very blessed.

 

  
How do you see yourself evolving, or "becoming", in the next year?  In the next 3 years?

 

 

I see myself more fully utilizing my gifts and abilities to honor God through my work and my ministry.  I have always wanted to do something that made a difference and helped people, and I think Jump Start Your Job Search is accomplishing that.  I want to grow in my abilities and continue to use my gifts to help others.

 

 

Thanks for your insights, Amy!

 

 

You can contact Amy via amydinning@juno.com.

 

 

Are you becoming, or do you know someone who is becoming?  I am always looking for the next becoming interview! 

Expanding Your World: Fall in Seoul, Change in You

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s fall, a time of change.  This week, I was fondly remembering Korea in fall - the beauty of the foliage and the cool, crispness of the air – and thought I would share three of my favorite fall pictures from Seoul.  The first is a view of the Han River in autumn’s last light; the second is a view to central Seoul from the summit of Bukhansan (Bukha Mountain); and the third is of a quiet street in Suwon, a smaller city about 30-45 minutes south of Seoul.

 

 

As the season changes, so do you.  So, here’s a reflection question to go along with the pictures – feel free to leave your answers here!

 

 

How are you changing this fall?

Becoming You: A Love Letter to My Home, Philadelphia

 

 

This week, I thought I’d push the envelope a little.  I believe a big part of “becoming you” is finding a place you can call home.  I have found that.  Here’s my love letter to my home.

 

 

Dear Philadelphia,

 

 

Thank you for being the city that loves me back.  And grows with me. 

 

 

For more than a decade, I have thrived here in the closet and out of the closet, depressed and at peace, as the general manager of a uniform company and as a corporate trainer, as a volunteer leader and as an adjunct professor, and as  Jew and as a Unitarian-Universalist.  My friends from Muhlenberg brought me to you, and even though many of them have left over the years, I remain.  I even lived in Korea on and off for 2 years, but I came back to you when all was said and done.  No matter where I’ve been, you’ve always loved me wherever I am.

 

 

Yes, you have evolved into a super hip mecca of amazing food, culture; yet, it’s your core that I love the most.  Here are my favorite things about you.

 

 

1.  Your revolutionary spirit, embodied best by the flame that burns eternally in Washington Square Park as a monument to the soldiers who gave their lives in the Revolutionary War.

 

2.  The way the river sparkles on a sunny fall afternoon as I run along the Schuykill River Trail (http://www.schuylkillrivertrail.com).

 

3. The wide smiles and kind words Jon and I are showered with whenever we enter our favorite Thai restaurant – you are truly a city of neighborhoods and neighbors (www.erawanphilly.com).

 

4.  Meandering through your Reading Terminal Market (http://www.readingterminalmarket.org) in search of new spices, sauces, and meals.

 

 

But my most favorite thing about you is that you brought Jon and me together.  I moved to your Center City for a new life fresh out of the closet, and Jon moved here for an education.  We both got those things, and on July 1, 2006, we got each other.  You helped me find my true home, Jon, in the southeast corner of your Rittenhouse Square Park.

 

 

No matter where the road takes us, I will always call you home.  Always.

 

Love,
Brian

 

 

Now it’s your turn.

 

Can you write a love letter to your home?  If yes, what would you say?  If not, why not?

 

Feel free to share your thoughts, and/or your own love letter, here.