Vema Youngquist:
CLASS OF 1973
Wilson Area High SchoolClass of 1973
Easton, PA
Vema's Story
Life
Just a little about my life...gosh 50+ years old...sounds too incredible to be true, but my two kids remind me of it constantly, but in a complimentary way. I was married for 19 years, right out of college, where I met my, now xhusband. (I've been divorced for the past, wow, has it really been almost 9 years? Still single and dating and it's really not bad! :))After college and getting married we spent 2 fun years living in Yugoslavia studying, and then we settled in No.California (Bay Area), in his hometown. Through my 20's and 30's I concentrated on being a wife and mother, but also worked - never a true career. I didn't get serious about that until we moved to So. California in the early 90's when the husband decided to pursue his doctoral program.
We have two incredible and beautiful children from the marriage; Erik is a handsome 22 year old, 6'2", 210lbs, blonde (when he doesn't shave his head), blue eyes - pursuing a career as a firefighter and currently in the fire academy and company commander for his academy class (am a proud mom, of course). And my daughter, Lindsay, who is 19 and a sophomore at Chico State this year (and has given me a bit of heartburn occasionally), should be kept under lock and key, according to all of my friends! She's smart, funny, charming and much prettier than I ever hoped to be (ha!). Why do the girls want to get away from home and the boys don't seem to be in a hurry to leave?
I have a 4 year old cat named Lucy who is tormented by my adorable black lab who joined us at 5 weeks old. Emmi is now a strapping 65lbs and thinks she's the queen bee. I never loved dogs until Emmi. And she's really catching on to the Starbuck's scene...on the weekends you can find us sitting outside at the local Starbuck's having a coffee and Emmi grabbing attention from anyone willing to give it to her.
My family still lives in Pennsylvania, at least the majority of my sisters do (came from a family of 12). Both of my parents passed away in the last 7 years. I do get back to PA occasionally to visit....haven't been to Easton for several years but when I was there it appeared smaller than I remember. Such a contrast from California. Believe it or not, I actually live about 30 minutes from Disneyland...45 minutes from the beach....45 minutes from the mountains and snow skiing...1hour 15 from Palm Springs (desert)...3 hours drive from Las Vegas! So I've got a little bit of heaven all around me - but let's not forget the traffic - so there is a downside to living here; or mayb...Expand for more
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Workplace
After graduating from college with a teaching degree, which I never used, I mainly worked secretarial/administrative assistant positions. I got really good at typing - over 90 words per minute (Ms. Mooney would be proud!). Eventually I only worked Executive Assistant positions for CEO's and CFO's of large companies - probably because I typed so good! :) Not very fulfilling, but I was working, being a good wife, and eventually a good mother, who also had to work out of necessity to help support the family - unfortunately typical for living in California. So during my 20's and 30's I didn't get much satisfaction out of a career until my late 30's when we relocated to So. California and my husband went back to school for his doctorate. That's when my career got on track.
I have been an executive/corporate recruiter for the past 9 years. Prior to this career, I worked for a pharmaceutical company in So.California as their Director of Administrative Services for 3 years, managing a team of 9 employees, from IT to Payroll to HR to Accounting.
I am currently a corporate recruiter for SAP, headquartered just outside of Philly, and a $12B German owned software company. I worked for their major competitor, Oracle, for 6 years prior to this. I have been recruiting senior sales professionals and executives for around 9 years and almost 2 years now at SAP. At one point I covered the entire country for their sales organization that targets customers in the billions....ironically I now cover the entire East coast and support a management team of 20 VPs who call me when they need to hire sales reps for their territories. With this new territory, I find myself in beautiful PA frequently!! It's a great position; hard work; fast paced environment; I work from home, which is a blessing and a curse at times. Gives you tremendous flexibility but the work is always staring at you and it feels as though you never get away from it. Discipline is key and some days it's just hard to keep the concentration, so it can be a struggle...but it works for me...hey, where else can you work and wear your jammies and hair in a ponytail all day - heck, you can even be naked and no one will ever know since your job is done over the phone and the computer!:)
Bottom line, it's challenging and I enjoy it...I found my niche when I began recruiting - it takes an aggressive, driven and persistent personality to do this...and I've been told that's me! And you all thought I was some quiet little thing in HighSchool!
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