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Lois, a recently retired mother of 3 adult children worked as a Supervisor over Financial Assistance within the Westchester County Dept. of Social Serves for 33 years (and 5 months), during that time she completed both her B.S. & M.S. in Human and Social Services.

“I don’t remember how I found GetSetUp. I think I was doing some research. You know with the pandemic you are getting abundant online courses — but when I went in and I started looking around the site — I thought this is not so bad. I can sit for an hour and learn something — a bit about Facebook or Whatsapp.”

Lois, a UMR member, retired not too long ago and said that before the pandemic that meant she was doing even more things outside of her home, even though she loves being at home. With the extra time she had, she decided to take on a more active role with her work with her former sorority, she found herself putting together surveys and surveying the group to learn what the organization could do better.

“Having completed and worked on survey questions, I thought it was time to learn how to create and add the questions to an actual survey format for distribution. Usually, I would complete the questions and rely on team members to input the questions within a survey format.”

Following a Hunger for Knowledge

That hunger for knowledge led Lois to look for a class to take to learn how to use Google Sheets since it was something she had struggled with a little bit in the past.

“I had a need to get away from me asking for help but to accomplish the task myself”

Lois’ Google Sheets class was taught by Marge and she felt she had a chance to ask her questions and get them answered.

“The class with Marge allowed time to ask questions and to clarify what I did not understand. My ‘aha’ moment came at the end of our class hour. I suggested another segment to this class as in Part 2. Personally, I would love to take a series of this class to become more familiar with the tools.”

Lois naturally pursues learning. Therefore, she keeps coming back to GetSetUp and looking for these new tools and classes. She finds that since she has retired she has taken up learning about all the things she never had time to learn before.

“I love to learn and meet people and learn about people.”

Lois does this through spending time with her family including taking her granddaughter to Jamaica, where Lois, was born to explore their roots. Lois migrated as a child, so she grew up from elementary school in the US and hasn’t had a lot of opportunities to go back to the Caribbean. Spending time with her family is essential to her though, so being able to explore her home country, visit extended family, and eat some of that delicious Caribbean food with her granddaughter was a great adventure, which she hopes to repeat again when travel conditions are a bit safer.

Self-Initiation to Pursue Life-Long Learning

Now Lois explores through reading up on topics that interest her like finance, Issues on race, and currently a guide on understanding the profession of adjunct professors.

“I like to read wherever my interests take me.”

That has led her with the current focus on racism and the ongoing fight for equality to read more historical information around these issues that she knew happened but didn’t know the specifics involved.

Lois is using her retirement to learn about all the topics she never had time to focus on before as a busy working professional and mother.

“Another undertaking I find myself getting interested in is plant-based diets. I just completed an 8-week plant-based nutritional class and learned so much about plant-based foods and their effects on the body. I also am aware of GetSetUp’s nutrition and physical activity classes such as Tai-Chi.”

Already possessing some delicious coconut milk recipes in her repertoire that she can consider adjusting to more plant-based foods.

“I have a lot of interests! Normally you don’t have time to sit and learn. Classes are just 30 minutes to an hour, which allows me to sit, listen, and soak in the information.”

Lois explained a few days ago she received an email from a friend, who did not send the email. After contact with my friend, it was determined there was an issue.

“I suggested the following GetSetUp tech/social media classes for a better understanding of performing some operating tasks. I explained some classes have no fee and some may have a small fee.”

With Lois sharing her love of GetSetUp classes it’s only natural that she’s a GetSetUp Ambassador. Our GetSetUp Ambassadors have taken 3 or more classes on our site, and keep coming back. Why not check out what keeps bringing Lois and other Ambassadors back?