Author Archive for Amy Chastek

I bought a house late last summer. It was rewarding as for the first time in a long time it was something that I was able to do myself and it has given my family a sense of home and belonging. I love my new house, but with every home purchase comes changes that the [...]

In career services we preach that you need to find yourself a mentor.  A mentor is someone who guides you, gives you their insight and their professional advice.  I have been very lucky to have had some GREAT mentors during the course of my career in education.  Betty Wilting, my former Dean at the technical [...]

One quote you will hear me saying often to my staff, students and graduates; “Life is all about choices.” It is!  Everything we do involves choice. Whether it is your career search, climbing your career ladder, deciding to turn your homework in on time or making the decision to make a fresh start there are [...]

I need to vent…for those who know me, they know that I am big into raising money for charity, volunteer work, donating blood and anything else that I can possibly do to make the world a better place. I live here, my kids are growing up here and I’d like for the world to be [...]

We are all faced with our challenges, whether it is a physical handicap like I talked about in my article “Yes I can”, people in our lives telling us we can’t do it or our own attitude preventing us from moving forward. I and my staff are fortunate that we get to watch students and [...]

During every mock interview I do with a student or graduate I ask the question, “Who is your role model and why?” At least 95% of the respondents say “My mother.” It is like a contest, knowing the student if I think they will or won’t choose their mom, granted my odds are pretty good [...]

In 2005 as I was traveling through Montana on our way back to Wisconsin from Oregon, I exited onto Highway One from the Interstate to find gas. As I traveled the two mile trek to the nearest gas station I passed a sign pointing to the right that said “Opportunity”. I thought to myself, “How [...]

So sitting here at 8 pm on a Monday night winding down after having attended an all day meeting that explored using social media to reach out to people; i.e. blogging, twitter and such.  Also thinking about the recent elections and the power behind the “yes we can” verbiage used in the campaign for President.  [...]