Get to Know: Jennifer Valliere

I thought I would start a blogging about people I know. We all build new friendships throughout our lifetime but not every one of your friends necessarily get to meet each other. So I thought I would tell everyone about one my of friends each week (if I can keep it up)...

First up to bat, Jenny...

Jenny and I at Mount Mercy's Thanksgiving dinner

This is Jenny. ------------->

I met her in Cedar Rapids, Iowa when I moved out there to go to school at Mount Mercy University. Everyone thinks she Hawaiian, but really she's a mixture of a Korean, French, Irish, Czech

I would say she is one of the most genuine people I know. I couldn't tell you when the last time I saw her mad at anything. She always bring that positive attitude everywhere she goes.

Before I knew who Jenny was, I remember I had a class with her my first year at MMU and all I could think of was, "There's are asians in Iowa." Ha.

I didn't talk to her until the end of the semester when we had to do presentation a class. I'm pretty sure the conversation went like "Hey, how do you think you did on your presentation?" "I think I did ok."Pretty boring, right? But you have to start somewhere to meet new people.

Throughout the years, I got to know Jenny a little more and I could relate to her in many ways, one of them being we both had goals in life that are bigger than us.

But first, here's a little about Jenny.

She was born and raised in Iowa. In 7th grade, she moved out of Iowa and lived in Hawaii for a year with her mom, whom had a sister who lived in the Aloha state, after her parents got divorced. Then due to child custody battle between her parents, she moved back to Iowa and lived with her grandparents until she was done with high school.

In high school at Cedar Rapids Kennedy High School, she competed in figure skating, which she started doing since the 3rd grade, but gave it up after her first year of college and just did it for fun and exercise due to working 3 part-time jobs, being part of theatre and writing the the university newspaper, which became too much to handle at times. She also was involved in theatre, played volleyball, ran track, was a first chair violinist in an orchestra and did the morning anchor news for the high school television news team.

But that wasn't all she did during high school. In her sophomore year, she received a letter from National America Miss. From what she told me, National American Miss is a pretty big system and a good starting point for those girls who want to compete in Miss American or Miss USA in the future. She thought it was a hoax so she didn't compete in it.

Then, the very next year, she received the same exact letter from National America Miss, and she decided to compete in it. That was the first pageant she competed in and didn't win any awards as she competed with 60 other girls. But after one competition, she got hooked to pageantry.

But senior year was when everything fell into place. She competed in the same competition again and placed 2nd runner up. Soon after, other pageants contacted her to compete in their system.

Jenny told me, "I always had a really low self-esteem and I was so shy growing up, but pageantry gave me confidence that I never really had and kind of taught me more about myself and gave me the skills to do a majority of the things I am involved in today."

"I used to get report cards back from teachers saying I needed to volunteer and talk more in class. Now they probably couldn't get me to shut up and I talk for a living."

When she said "I talk for a living," she is talking about her job as a radio personality at the Cedar Rapids local radio station, KZIA, or also known as Z102.9. But her job just doesn't involve talking into a microphone 5 days a week. She gets to work at events like baseball games, ceremony of some kind, etc to promote KZIA.

As she works for KZIA, at the same time, she plans to compete in pageants as long as she can, as she looks to compete in her 5th Miss Iowa pageant this October.

"I am competing in this pageant because I believe it's going to open so many doors for me career wise. I am very career focused and want to always continue to grow. I think miss Iowa USA is the ultimate networking opportunity and can give me even more experience and skills I need for my future career whether it be to stay in radio broadcasting or eventually move to television."

"I love working for Z. It's an amazing company; I enjoy working with the people. I have learned an incredible amount of skills from live broadcast to hosting events to welcoming crowds at the U.S. Cellular center, producing commercials and promos, and also web content development!"

Thought Jenny said she is career focused, she has other things in mind as well.

"Another reason I want to win miss Iowa is to be a role model for those girls who didn't have confidence like I did or grew up in unhealthy environments and don't think they have the capability of going to college or doing all these extracurricular activities because they can't afford it or don't have family support. Because I would be a prime example that you can, and it's my way of giving back to pageants of how they helped me realize that by not giving up."

But her ultimate goals?

"My goal is to win miss Iowa, but career wise, I know I want to work in the entertainment industry. My dream job would be to be someone like Ryan Seacrest! He gets to do the whole shebang: television host, radio personality, producer. I would LOVE to do it all!"

Thanks for your time Jenny!


Jun

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." -Lao-Tzu

It's all part of the journey

Everyone has a story to tell...

Exactly a month ago, I started my first day as a full-time employee at Fox Sports. I was only a part-time employee for about 9 months there but it was a long 9 months, as people could attest who have been working there longer than I have. It is has been a blessing and I have been fortunate to work with people at Fox Sports who have helped me as I was worked my way up and still am, and I want to thank each and one of you for that.

But lets step back and rewind a few months before I got offered the full-time job.

After I finished playing summer ball in Iowa, I knew that my playing career came to an end. I want to say I wasn't the worst player, but I wasn't the best but I gave it 100 percent every single day when I was on the field. But solely based on my statistics from my senior season at Mount Mercy, I probably didn't really have a chance of playing anywhere afterwards.

So once I got back home from California in August, I landed job at Fox Sports as a freelancer, thanks to a person who I would call my best friend. But even though I knew I had a great job right out of college, I still had the itch to play.

So throughout the first couple of months I started working at Fox, I talked to a couple of my friends and coaches about wanting to play. After having the discussions, I sent out emails to organizations in American and internationally to see what my chances were of possibly living the dream.

I got one email back around October from a League manager in Colorado and he suggested me to do a Spring League in Texas for a month in March to showcase for a couple of team. Unfortunately, I didn't have the funds to paying the league fee and support myself living in a hotel for a month.

My initial thought were, "Well, there's always next year. But that means I'll be a year older and teams are always looking for younger players." In moment of the time I was on the fence of things, I decided to lean towards living the so-called "American dream."

Then from there we fast forward to the week of April 13th. I woke up on Monday morning, 3 weeks after I started my first day as a full-timer at Fox, to start my morning routine of making coffee, check up on the social media world and emails.

I saw that I had a lot of junk emails in my inbox, but I noticed a email from a guy named French.

So I opened the email and it was an offer to play in France in the city of Chartres.

Although it wasn't going to pay a whole lot, my mind was racing with excitement, but also lost in what I should do because of the job offer I took earlier last month. But when does a chance to play baseball and live in France come around? Probably not often.

Before I sent an email back, I made sure I talked to my mom and a couple of my friends about it. Everyone had different perspectives on what they suggested me to do, but ultimately, it would come down to my decision on what I want to do with my life.

During the span of 6 days, the president of the league and I exchanged a few emails, the first one I sent out being an unsure answer of if I wanted to play or not, depending on an additional situation of what he was going to offer.

In the end, I received an email informing that the team has found another player and they decided to keep him throughout the season.

Honestly, staying at Fox Sports would have been the logic thing in my situation, but I think I would have jump ship and went to France to live the dream. I mean, it's what I always wanted to do as a little kid.

I remember someone came up to me and and asked me if I was going to do it, even though I'm not sure how he found out because I didn't tell many people. But as we talked, he told me I should do it because it might be been a once in a lifetime opportunity and I should do it while I'm young.

...

Everything happens for a reason and its all part of the journey. I traveled and moved to the middle of no where Barstow, California to moving out to Iowa to play collegiate baseball and all lead to this moment.

From all this, I learned that if you want to do something in life, don't hesitate and go for it; its like fielding a ground ball. if you hesitate one step, you're going to be too late to get the out.

I still have an itch to play. We'll see what happens next year...

Jun

R.I.P. Auntie Youriko

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kx8aBuudgcg