Success Stories - November 2008
Beth Sinclair
Guided by Faith ... and a Fairytale
"Don't go into this overwhelmed and thinking about how long it will take or that you don't have time. Just take one class. You'll be amazed at how soon you'll be saying, 'Wow-I'm almost there already!'" --Beth Sinclair, Dealer Web Marketing Specialist, Subaru of America
When Beth Sinclair began her life's journey, she had a different plan in mind. A true- blue child of the 60's, Beth moved to California more interested in pursuing the "hippie" life than continuing her education. What she did not realize was a higher power was at work in her life that guided her back home near Buffalo, NY where she gradually fell in love, married, and gave birth to a beautiful daughter. Seventeen years later, a part of the fairytale unraveled as Beth's marriage ended. Although she had gone back to work when her daughter was two, she now had the responsibility of raising her and eventually putting her through college.
Beth's first "real" job was at a car dealer in the early 70s and as she puts it, "I've been in the car business ever since." Her career with Subaru of America began on July 17, 1978 first as a customer service representative and then moving into project management. She worked on three different project teams. It was the third project involving the handling of email through their brand new corporate website that led Beth to her current position. Beth was asked to manage email received through the new site and in 1999, moved into responsibility for the operations of the Subaru Dealer Website Program helping dealers maximize the benefits of using the Web to generate leads and sell cars.
Life is very full for this young grandmother of four who, besides her job at Subaru, also works part time in her parish leading adult faith formation activities. Beth does not believe in things happening by chance. She believes that coincidences are really God at work in our lives and uses her story of how she came to be a student at CCS as an example. During a night out with friends from church the discussion of where each went to college came up. Beth surprised everyone when she told them she had never been to college. A month later CCS came to Subaru. Beth instinctively knew it was time to do something for her.
After overcoming the nervousness caused by a fear of not being able to keep up with the rest of the class, Beth listened to the advice of a younger co-worker who said repeatedly, "just take one class-if you hate it-what's the loss?" and entered the program with no credits. That was three years ago. Beth loves being a CCS student. "I feel like my brain is being challenged and the courses have helped me a great deal in the work I do everyday." The fact that classes are held at Subaru is also very helpful. Beth enjoys the small class size and the fact that her instructors know and have experience in the fields in which they teach. "I've used some of the class studies to help with my job such as a statistical study on the relationship between two features on the Websites to prove the value of those features and implemented Project Management skills to organize family vacations."
A self-described spiritual person, Beth thinks that anyone who accepts that there is a higher power that they can call on from deep within will find that there is no limit to what they can do. "I'm planning on graduating in three years-when I'm 60! For me this isn't about getting ahead in my career. It's about reaching a lifelong goal." Beth is also a huge fan of the movie, The Princess Bride. She describes the scene where the Dread Pirate Roberts tells Wesley on a nightly basis, "Good night Wesley. Good work. Sleep well. I'll likely kill you in the morning," as a comparison to what she thought after registering for each class, "OK, one more ... I'll likely quit after this one ... " Of course, the pirate didn't kill Wesley, who went on to find his true love, and Beth didn't quit realizing that there was no turning back from her dream. So the story goes ... and Beth succeeded happily ever after.
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