A TASTE OF MY OWN MEDICINE, CHEFS! WRITING THE BIO

PLEASE SEND YOUR BIO IN ENGLISH AND A HIGH-RES PHOTO.

This is exactly what I asked my chefs to do in English before the Summit in Dubai. Some of them did it right away because they had the info ready. Others took a little longer. Sometimes they would send me a Resumé and ask me to do it. Well, I decided to try it myself. Just write a few lines to describe myself professionally. 

What I expected and what actually came out were completely different. I wanted to concentrate on the NOW and tell people exactly what I do (what the hell do I do again?)  but instead what I was longing to write was how I got here. So I did that instead.

I started with a sentence that would talk about the past, the present and the future all at the same time. Those are my favorite kinds of introductory sentences in books, too. 

Here is what came out. 



KAROLINE STECKLEY

From a young age I wanted to communicate with the world. I knew that I would have to leave my small town in the midwestern United States to do that. I could not wait. I worked from the time I legally could (age 13) and put money aside to pay for a year abroad. I spent my final year of high school as a Rotary Exchange Student in Belgium. It was the year that determined the course of my life. 

I went back to the States after a year and started University. I graduated in French Language and Literature in three and a half years (six months ahead of schedule). For the first two years of school I had up to three jobs at a time before getting a better paying job at a bank which allowed me to pay for my rent and expenses. Convinced that education would be my key to success, I earned a Masters Degree in Foreign Language and Literature two years later. I taught French language at the same University while I studied. The teaching experience helped me get my first teaching job at a college prepatory independent high school nearby just before graduation. I won a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to study Francophone literature in Senegal the next summer. It opened up my world again. After three years of teaching language and literature, I decided to leave that job to move to Brazil and perfect my Portuguese and study the link between Brazil and Africa. Teaching skills are portable, so I took them with me. When I felt satisfied with my language level, I went back to the States and started a new adventure teaching Middle School and High School French at a Prep School in New England. 

I moved to Italy two years later and have been here now for eleven years. For the last four I have been the director of a 50-year old non-profit library and language school with over 60 active volunteers. My proudest achievements there have been founding a Children's Library in 2010 and a Women's Space in 2014. In my consulting career I have helped many small and medium-sized companies communicate better to an international audience. My working life has been a constant evolution and hugely satisfying result of applying my strengths in writing, teaching, leadership and language to different contexts. Self-reliance, curiosity, courage, and resilience drive my boldest decisions. Empathy and the desire to connect with people from everywhere and all walks of life give my work lasting value.