Mary Schiendler, program director of Inside Edge, is blessed with a sense of adventure that has taken her on roads to which others may have said a simple, “No thank you.” In an era when women so often got teaching credentials as the default educational mode, she chose business school for which she was entirely qualified, was one of only 14 women in a class of hundreds of men and told by the admissions officer that she was welcome to attend but they could guarantee her nothing.
Mary, a woman who has always taken the more interesting, more challenging path and knows the value of reaching for adventure, was undaunted by this promise of no guarantee. Guarantee or not, every road was open because Mary was. Learning at every step along the way and living a life at optimal potential seems to be her guide. I invite you to listen to Mary talk about her personal journey of chances courageously taken, a sorrow faced and a life still in the process of being built on love and adventurous enlightenment. Mary’s life is a lesson in how putting one foot in front of the other can lead us to just where we are meant to be.