Linda (Brown) Coonen:
CLASS OF 1983
Crystal Lake Central High SchoolClass of 1983
Crystal lake, IL
McHenry County CollegeClass of 1985
Crystal lake, IL
Linda's Story
Life
Life is very good. I married John Coonen, my high school sweetheart, a little more than a year after graduation. We had kids right away. Andrew was born in 1985 and Alyssa in 1989. We lived in Minnesota for about 5 years while John finished college at St. Olaf and started a graphic design business while I was the director of a daycare so I was able to work and still be with the kids. We moved back to CL to be closer to our families in 1990. We love being involved in all of our kids activites from sports to music to school. We also do a lot of volunteer work through the CL Jaycees and Lakeside Legacy (the org. that saved the Dole Mansion)and we recently moved into a little bigger house by the new high school(Prairie Ridge)and are enjoying (and driving ourselves crazy!)with remodleing projects and trying to take care of our acre+ lot! I still get to see a few of my friends from high school although not as often as I'd like. I can't make it to the reunion but am hoping to see everyone either before or after at some kind of get together or at the Gala Fest!
College
Nothing exciting...I went to MCC to get my associated degree in Early Childhood Education so I could teach preschool. I went to MCC instead of going away because I was already offered a teacher's assistant job and promise of a full time job once I graduated with my associates. I love the education I got at MCC. It was totally tailored to me and what I needed to learn to teach. Many of my professors were still in the field and brought real life/real job experiences to the classes. I got my first full time job teaching right here in CL at Thunderbird Nursery school. After I got married and had my son, we went to MN but when we moved back in 1990 I got another teaching job from one of my old professors here in CL at Learning Tree preschool. I loved those teaching jobs and owe a lot of it to good old MCC!
Workplace
I taught preschool for 8 years both in MN and here in CL. I loved teaching but when my husband's business started...Expand for more
to expand and he was going to pay someone twice what I was making teaching to do bookkeeping and some misc. office work I made the switch to business. It was great because I could do most of it from home so I could be with the kids. About 4 years later, when the kids were older, I went back to teaching. I taught 1 year at Coventry Elementary as a reading assistant but soon realized I don't like school politics and I wasn't using all of my abilities. A friend needed someone to answer phones and so some office work and they would work around my kids' schedule so I jumped at it. I soon realized I had a real knack for market research analysis. I quickly worked my way up the ladder. When my company was merging with another research company, a co-worker and I split off to form our own research company (Zicha & Associates...I'm the "Associate"). My partner has been in the research industry for almost 25 years and is a nationally known statistician and speaker so I get to work on a lot of national projects. I love my job because it has a lot of variety. I also get to work from home most of the time which allows me to be home when my kids breeze in and out from school and college. The other advantage is that John (my husband) runs his web business out of our house as well so I always have a lunch date! I miss teaching but I think I use more of my skills now and our kids would never have had savings for college on a preschool teacher's salary!
Update: Our daughter, Alyssa, married to Josh Miller in 2011 and they recently bought a house in Denver, Colorado. Alyssa is a dietitian and Josh is a web developer. Andrew, our son, married Julie Jacquinot in 2013 and they bought 5+ acres of organic farm land in Wisconsin near LaCrosse. They are expecting their first child in September! Woot! They both work for Organic Valley (an organic dairy and produce distributor). John and I still work from home so we get to take our work on the road with us when we go visit the kids which we do as often as we can!
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