INSPIRATION FOR TEENS Morgan Hill Chamber of Commerce Volunteer of the Year Sandra McNeal BY KIMBERLY EWERTZ PHOTOGRAPHS BY ROBERT ELIASON
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APRIL 13, 2018
etirement brings to mind relaxation and time to live the good life. For longtime Morgan Hill resident Sandra McNeal, retirement provided her with a gift. The gift of time. McNeal uses that gift to give back to the community she loves—in particular, helping local teens prepare for the next chapter in their lives.
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After 33 years in the corporate world of human resources, including 16 years with IBM and 17 with Abbot Laboratories, McNeal retired in 2014. Although she said good-bye to the corporate side of HR, she still owns and operates her own company, Ivey
League Consulting, which specializes in strategic planning, problem solving, business transformation and heightening individual self-awareness. “When I retired I wanted to get involved with the community. The Chamber of Commerce was the first organization I joined,” McNeal says. McNeal found a perfect fit for her skills in the Chamber’s Education Committee program, Rock the Mock, founded in 2012 by Brenda Glimpse and John and Ann Horner, who McNeal considers to be the “trailblazers” of the program. “Brenda had a host of notes and information for me to take on the program,” she says. “I just took her information and transformed it into a project plan that I could execute.” Rock the Mock is a two-and-a-halfhour program that provides high school students with hands-on interviewing skills. Students are instructed on how to
dress, the proper handshake and how to prepare for an interview. Each student participating in the program takes part in a 20-minute mock interview with volunteer community professionals. The program is presented to all three Morgan Hill high schools, Live Oak, Central and Ann Sobrato, December through February. Approximately 600 students have taken part in the program. Brenda Glimpse, a former chair of the Rock the Mock program, feels McNeal was a great benefit to the committee and led the program in a direction it needed to go. “She really captivates her audience and I thought that would be really good for the students,” says Glimpse. “Also, I just thought she would bring the program to another level. She’s very detail oriented, she comes with a lot of passion and ideas, and she’s very creative, so the program needed that for its next step.” ➝ 15