20 June 2008

Bio

I recently had to write a bio for a website I was asked to contribute too. You should all know by now that nothing I write is short. Here's what I wrote, it may have to be shortened before it can be used. Let me know what you think.
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Born and raised in Central California, Tamara B received a degree in Agriculture Education with a double emphasis in Animal and Plant Science. As a multicultural academic scholar, she experienced a variety in education, travel and career experiences. Similar to the rest of her life, she was involved in a little bit of everything: welding, showing cattle, micro plant propogation trials, student government, greek life, athletics, leading bible studies, working for the USDA, grant writing, boys and even a little formal education thrown in the mix.

It was during her college days that the USDA employed her with a variety of agencies for work experience. She thoroughly enjoyed the days that she sat under the Giant Sequoia for a quick bite to eat, hiked up the streams in the national forests for water quality monitoring, and surveyed for endangered owl species at midnight with the Forest Service. She loved and appreciated the days she worked for an environmental based education program to educate the underserved rural communities on natural resources. Hiring students who knew nothing more than picking citrus fruit was more than educating on natural resources. It gave the students and their families hope. Eventually those experiences led her to the Natural Resources Conservation agency where out of offers from 6 states, she chose Iowa. The 10-week summer experience in Iowa was quite the learning curve. You could imagine all the things that were strange to her after growing up in Central California, even if it was a small (6k people) farming community. It peaked her curiosity enough that she came back for another 4 weeks to check out a "winter".

Two short weeks being honored as the first in her extended family to attend college and receive a degree, Tamara B made the big move to the midwest. Unsure of its permanancy, she settled in rural Northeast Iowa. Content with her surroundings (but missing fresh clam chowder, fresh fruit, friends and family), she quickly got involved in her new community. It was a few weeks later that she met Ryan (a whole 'nother story in itself), whom she married less than a year later.

To date, she lives in a beautiful old farm house with her amazing husband and two beautiful children. She continues to work full time with the USDA. Her husband, Ryan, is a veterinarian and fixes both livestock and pets. The two of them are blessed to have both of their parents move to the area and take an active role in their children's lives. In her spare time, Tamara likes to scrap book, sew and enjoy the outdoors. In the 6 years she's lived in Iowa, she has become just like you - An Iowa Mom.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I would leave out the references to which department and agency you work for. Maybe just say that you work for a federal agency and leave it vague like that.

Getting dooce'd is one reason to leave the work references out. And another is that there are some crazies out there and you might not want them stumbling across your info.

Only other thing would be to make it shorter. 1st and 2nd paragraph could be condensed. But that isn't necessary. It looks good either way.

Jody said...

Mine is no where near that long... But some others are. I think it's ok, not too much info. But since I know where you're contributing it I'd say it's good. :)

Ashley said...

I learned so much about you! How did you end up editing it?

Anonymous said...

I think you did a great job, although I would suggest shortening para 2. People don't read online, they skim - especially long paragraphs. Since people will just skim over it, so you may as well just include the most important info that you want them to read. I have a website called www.howtowritebio.com that has fill-in-the-blank templates for various types of professional bios. Your readers might find it helpful.